Bohemian Rhapsody

Program Notes

Freddie Mercury once remarked, “We break a lot of rules. It’s unheard of to combine opera with a rock theme, my dear.”

“Bohemian Rhapsody” may be the ultimate expression of that philosophy. Released on Queen’s album A Night at the Opera, the song compresses an astonishing range of drama, shifting effortlessly between tragedy, parody, spectacle, and catharsis.

Far more than a straightforward arrangement for two pianos, Greg Anderson’s virtuosic fantasy reconnects “Bohemian Rhapsody” with the operatic traditions that helped shape its imagination. The song’s opening tragedy, with its cries of guilt and mortality, expands naturally into late-Romantic Wagnerian drama, wandering through increasingly distant harmonic regions as the protagonist’s desperation grows. But just as the drama reaches its breaking point, Mercury’s surreal cast of characters bursts onto the stage in a manic opera-buffa ensemble inspired by the comedic operatic worlds of Rossini and Mozart, complete with rhythmic surprises and theatrical exchanges. From there, the music hurtles toward its inevitable conclusion: a pianistic reimagining of Queen’s hard-rock climax, combining percussive bass lines with unapologetic Lisztian virtuosity.

Like the song that inspired it, the fantasy delights in breaking rules, collapsing boundaries between sincerity and parody, spectacle and confession, rock and opera.

— Greg Anderson