Evocative voice from "Titanic" stirs visions of Middle-earth in "Rings" tour

By Melinda Bargreen
Seattle Times staff reporter

"The music is so emotional and so beautiful, that I really understand its power over audiences," singer Sissel says of the "Lord of the Rings" score.

If Sissel's clear, pure voice sounds familiar, maybe it's because you heard this film-savvy singer in the movie houses — on James Horner's score to the 1997 movie "Titanic," for example.

Of her singing, The Wall Street Journal noted, "It's a good bet that when legions of filmgoers, including the teenaged Titaniacs, leave the movie theater, it's the evocative vocals of Norway's Sissel ... that linger in their minds and hearts."

Now, the 35-year-old Norwegian singer (her full name is Sissel Kyrkjebø) is on the road with Oscar-winning composer Howard Shore and the "Lord of the Rings" Symphony tour, which comes to Seattle's Benaroya Hall this week.

The hugely successful LOTR tour has already hit Columbus, Ohio; Atlanta; and Houston; on Thursday, it's Seattle's turn. Shore will conduct four performances with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Chorale, featuring Sissel and three other soloists (David Farris, Donna Cole and John Atcheson), plus the Northwest Boychoir, in a six-movement suite that includes music from all three LOTR films.

How did Sissel get from Norway to the Shire and Mount Doom?

"In March, I was in New York," she explains in faultless, unaccented English, "and I got a call saying that Howard Shore wanted me to sing for him. He needed a singer who could do both classical music and pop, with both high and low notes. I sang for him, and he invited me to join the tour." Shore was so impressed with her voice that he wrote an additional piece for her to go on the last "LOTR" DVD. Sissel didn't sing in the movie, but she is on bonus tracks of the DVD "as a link between the movie and the 'Lord of the Rings' Symphony."

The singer hadn't seen the movies before auditioning for Shore. "The music is so emotional and so beautiful," she says, "that I really understand its power over audiences. I look forward to every concert.

"It's fascinating to watch. When I sit on the stage, I look out at the audience and I can see their reactions and the expressions on their faces. The music takes them through the experience of the movie."

In Atlanta, Sissel says, a woman in the front row began to weep as the music depicted a crucial departure scene. Other listeners appeared to be "floating along with the music, because they were so into it. They recognized all the themes."

A huge star in Scandinavia and widely known in Europe, Sissel got a huge boost from the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, where her singing caught on with international audiences. The singer, now the mother of two daughters, is making a substantial career here in the U.S., following the release of her successful new CD, "My Heart" (that CD tour also brought her to Seattle's Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall this spring). The CD, like her singing style, is an intriguing mix of pop, original music and classical selections (including such famous arias as Puccini's "O Mio Babbino Caro").

"I haven't had a lot of classical training," Sissel explains, "and I don't think of myself as a classical singer. I would say I just have a natural voice. But I listen to everything, including country, rock and punk. I sang in a children's choir at nine, and we sang all styles of music."

Sissel grew up in a family of hikers, not musicians, in Seattle's sister city, Bergen. The city, famous for its beauty, is known as the capital of the fjords.

"Bergen has such a strong personality that you don't say you're from Norway; you say you're from Bergen," Sissel explains. "Our city even has its own national anthem! There are the mountains, the ocean in front, the beautiful hiking trails where we went hiking every Sunday. It is an amazing place."

Up next for Sissel is her performance of the original song "She Walks In Beauty" on the soundtrack for the new film "Vanity Fair," starring Reese Witherspoon. The soundtrack is set for release Aug. 31 on Decca Records. The film, an adaptation of the classic William Thackeray novel, opens nationwide Sept. 1.

She'll also sing for the small screen: Sissel is set to tape a segment of the NBC show "American Dreams" in August, with the episode due to air this fall.

Reviewers have a hard time categorizing Sissel; one recent U.S. review called her "an amalgam of crossover diva Sarah Brightman, Celtic new-age thrush Enya and Canadian folk-popster Sarah McLachlan." That's just fine with Sissel.

"I don't think I fit in any category," she explains. "I just love to sing. No matter what style I choose, it's all music. I just make it the best music that I can."

Melinda Bargreen: mbargreen@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company