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Phil Naro as Freddie Mercury for Classic Albums Live |
April 14 2012 – Tonight we saw the Classic Albums Live production of Queen‘s fourth album A Night at the Opera at Toronto’s Massey Hall. For those not familiar with the excellent Classic Albums Live franchise here is what their website states:
Classic Albums Live takes classic albums and recreates them live,on stage – note for note, cut for cut. Founded in 2003 by Craig Martin, Classic Albums Live has become the ultimate destination for music lovers wanting to hear the greatest albums performed live without all the gimmickry and cheesy impersonations. Relying only on the music, using what Martin refers to as ‘the world’s best musicians’, Classic Albums Live has defined itself as a mainstay in Performing Arts Centres across North America.
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Classic Albums Live presents Queen’s A Night At The Opera |
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 was 2 months ago at the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts 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.
If it took 8 people to recreate Zeppelin IV how many would it take to recreate A Night at the Opera? Well at 8:05pm sharp we see; 46 teenagers come out to form a choir at the back of the stage (we later find out that they are the Laura Secord high school choir), 1 conductor, 5 guitarists (that is not a typo my friends), 1 vocalist, 1 drummer, 1 bassist, 1 pianist and 3 backup singer. Count em – 59 people on stage!
The full roster was:Guitars – Greg Wyard, Bob Wegner, Rob Phillips, Dom Polito, Des Leahy
Drums – Troy Freener Bass – Russell Gray Keys – Will Hare
Vocals – Phil Naro, Leslea Keurvorst, Mike Slute, Mia Sheard
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The 5 guitarists for Classic Albums Live presents Queen’s A Night At The Opera were Greg Wyard, Bob Wegner, Rob Phillips, Dom Polito, Des Leahy |
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The three backup vocalists (Leslea Keurvorst, Mike Slute, Mia Sheard) for Classic Albums Live presents Queen’s A Night At The Opera |
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 |
After a 20 minute intermission the second set kicked off with Tie Your Mother Down, Get Down Make Love, Killer Queen and Spread Your Wings. Clearly the musicians are letting loose a bit more and have a different approach to the gig. If the first half was all business, the second half was all fun – an excellent balance. Phil Naro even tells us that he forgot his shoes in the back. A massive Brian May guitar solo was the highlight of the second half and we are then treated to songs such as Bicycle Race, an excellent Under Pressure with the backup singers nailing the Bowie parts, Keep Yourself Alive, We Will Rock You and of course We Are The Champions. The band comes back for one encore which is Somebody To Love.
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Phil Naro |
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 10:05pm. 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. Check out our YouTube video of Bohemian Rhapsody below.
The big Brian May guitar solo was Brighton Rock.
You keep outdoing yourself with your CAL reviews. What kind of camera are you using? Wayne
Thank you kind sir. All my previous reviews are with a Panasonic DMC-ZS7 but an updated model came out which I used for this show. This new one is the Panasonic DMC-ZS20. Highly recommended!
Good writeup! Gutted i missed it.
Nice to see a brian may replica in the mix too. Difficult style to copy right.
Great show, great musicians.
Highlights for me were, Death on Two Legs, Prophet Song, Brighton Rock,
and Good Company. The Choir was cool. Great job, can't wait for the next show?
Anyone know what that will be?
Groove
This is an amazing event. Well done to all.
Grant Ventura
Zeppelin Live – Australia.