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| Classic Albums Live presents Queen’s A Night At The Opera at Richmond Hill Center for Performing Arts – Oct 2012 |
Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? When Classic Albums Live presents Queen’s A Night At The Opera the answer is a bit of both.
October 23 2012 – The Richmond Hill Centre For The Performing Arts was tonight’s venue for our second viewing of Classic Albums Live production of Queen‘s fourth album A Night at the Opera for the second time in the last six months. The first time was at Massey Hall back in April which we reviewed here. The basic context of the show tonight was the same as last time so we will repeat most of what we wrote back then and update sections that were different tonight.
For those not familiar with the excellent Classic Albums Live franchise here is what their website states:
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| Phil Naro performing Queen’s A Night At The Opera Oct 2012 |
The franchise uses a large number of musicians and plays albums such as the epic The Dark Side Of The Moon, Revolver from The Beatles, The Joshua Tree from U2 and many more such classic rock mega hits. The last time we saw a CAL show at the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts was in Februrary 2012 where we saw a total of 8 musicians tackle Led Zeppelin IV. Our review of that show was very favorable, and we had high expectations for tonight’s show.
The full roster was:
Guitars – Greg Wyard, Bob Wegner, Rob Phillips, Des Leahy
Drums – Troy Freener, Bass – Johnnie B
Keys – Will Hare
Vocals – Phil Naro, Jenn Kee, Mike Slute, Mia Sheard
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| Greg Wyard, Bob Wegner, Rob Phillips and Des Leahy all doing Brian May on October 2012 |
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| Jenn Kee, Mike Slute and Mia Sheard performing Queen on October 2012 |
Musically the show was spot on in reproducing the sound of Queen’s 1975 masterpiece of hard rock. Tonight’s Freddie Mercury was Phil Naro the Emmy award winning vocalist from Rochester who has a very prolific history in Canadian hard rock. To our great surprise this was the same guy that did Plant at the Zeppelin IV gig. Was it truly possible that one man can do justice to both Plant and Mercury? Lyrically he had incredible range reproducing Mercury’s powerful voice, and he offered a powerful tribute. All musicians wore black at all times and this is a very intentional nuance of the show. It is about the music and the sum of the parts, the individual artists are almost to remain invisible during the rendition of A Night at the Opera. There was no banter, no song introductions, no acknowledging the crowd, just the raw power of songs like You’re My Best Friend, Love Of My Life and Bohemian Rhapsody. The first set consisted simply of A Night at the Opera in order, note for note.
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| Phil Naro – October 23 2012 |
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| Phil Naro and Jenn Kee dutifully reproducing Freddie Mercury – October 2012 |
The second half consisted of ten Queen staples and one encore. The show itself is very focused on the music as a philosophy and intentionally does not have a bar feel to it. After about 100 minutes of music the show concluded at 10:00pm. There should be no doubt on the aural assault that these Classic Album Live shows have to offer and everyone in the audience certainly got their money’s worth tonight.
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| Phil Naro and Jenn Key for Classic Albums Live – October 23 2012 |
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| Classic Albums Live presents Queen’s A Night At The Opera at Richmond Hill Center for Performing Arts – Oct 2012 |
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| Classic Albums Live presents Queen’s A Night At The Opera at Richmond Hill Center for Performing Arts – Oct 2012 |
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| Classic Albums Live presents Queen’s A Night At The Opera at Richmond Hill Center for Performing Arts – Oct 2012 |
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| Classic Albums Live presents Queen’s A Night At The Opera at Richmond Hill Center for Performing Arts – Oct 2012 |
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| Phil Naro: Classic Albums Live presents Queen’s A Night Oct 2012 |
