Barcelona rock-opera; “Perfume” premiere
Sep 13, 2006 at 22:58 | Alexandra Matoshkorcury can celebrate his life by attending the Dutch staging of the rock-opera “Barcelona,” to be performed in Kyiv Sept. 22.
Mercury died of complications from AIDS in November 1991. I didn’t discover the music of Queen and Freddie Mercury till the mid-nineties, when I was thirteen, but this can be excused, I guess, considering the country I grew up in. Besides, it was only then that my parents finally bought a modern Panasonic tape recorder (previously we had a Soviet-made record player), and I started listening to the radio and cassettes, discovering the world of music. Since then, music has become one of my strongest passions, with the work of Queen and Freddy Mercury serving as a cornerstone. However, upon seeing the poster announcing “Barcelona” rock-opera in the street for the first time I felt no excitement – it looked just like another bit of speculation on Freddy’s name and quite a fine addition to everything I saw happening to Queen and Freddie’s heritage lately.
It is unsurprising that a music phenomenon such as Queen didn’t simply end with Freddie Mercury’s death. But while the “Made in Heaven” album could indeed be called one of the best tribute-records ever, the “We Will Rock You” musical, as well as Queen “reunion” with Paul Rogers, looks like just another attempt to make more money off the famous brand. It’s understandable that Queen’s surviving musicians – Roger Taylor and Brian May – still want to be rock stars, but can’t they just form another band and call it something else other than Queen, and continue to play their old rock-n-roll? Quite a while ago music.com.ua had a poll posted on the site, with the question: “Which reunion of the famous band with a new vocalist do you consider the worst?” Of three choices offered Queen and Paul Rogers held the lead with 43 percent of the votes in their “favor.” Even if Rogers really is the best candidate for Queen’s front man as he’s claimed to be, it still doesn’t save him from looking ridiculous once you compare him to Freddy and it’s almost impossible to refrain from doing so.
Nevertheless, “Barcelona” is a slightly different genre – it stands closer to classic than rock and Mercury was mainly known as a rock singer. So if it’s performed and staged well, it might please both fans of Freddy and those who simply love good music.
The story of “Barcelona” began in 1987, when Mercury, fascinated by the voice of Montserrat Caballe, finally got to meet the opera diva and they started working together. They performed the song “Barcelona” as a duo, premiering at the KuClub in Ibiza on May 30 at the Ibiza ’92 Festival finale. The performance was received so warmly that the two musicians decided to continue collaboration which led to the release of “Barcelona” later that year. The album became a great success and showed fans of Queen and everyone else another side of Mercury’s talent. In 1992, “Barcelona” was selected as official Olympic theme and Montserrat sang it, unfortunately without Freddie – his part was performed by Jose Carreras.
At the upcoming “Barcelona” rock-opera performance Mercury’s part will be sang by Dutch rock singer Robin van Beek. In fact, he will appear in “Barcelona” for the first time at the Kyiv show, since the opera was staged previously with the participation of Italian singer Salvo Bruno. Beek replaced him and teamed up with opera singer Karin ten Cate who performs the vocal parts originally written for Caballe and conductor and composer Martin Panteleev – a Bulgarian currently living in Germany, who made a new arrangement for “Barcelona.” In Kyiv they will perform together with piano soloist Lida Kantcheva and Ukrainian State Symphony Orchestra. In fact the performance of songs from “Barcelona” will be only the first part of the show, while the second part will consist of Queen’s “golden” hits – as would be expected.
“The worst thing they can call it is ‘rock opera’ – which is so boring,” Mercury once said of “Barcelona” and the fact that “Barcelona” is indeed advertised as “rock-opera” is quite ironic. But what else could you call it? After all, Mercury and Caballe’s common record was one of the first attempts ever to combine popular music with opera – and a successful one at that. Whatever the case, the “Barcelona” production should be simply viewed as an alternative version, and if performers are as good as they are said to be, and Beek plays his part without trying to imitate Mercury, it just may be a good show and a worthy tribute to the genius.
International Center of Culture and Arts (1 Instytutska, 279-1582)
September 22, 7 p.m. Tickets Hr 60 to Hr 800.