Classic Albums: Queen – A Night At The Opera
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Main Program: B
Queen is a popular band, but a divisive one among some
critics. Some think they are great,
while others think little of them.
Homophobia and the band playing Sun City when apartheid was in full
swing are two non-music reasons. Those
who do not like the Progressive Art Rock of the late 1960s-early 1970s are
another group. And then there are those
who never liked Glam Rock. They took
the subgenres into new directions.
Another thing the band did was take Rock and with lead singer Freddie
Mercury himself in particular, took the Fascist aesthetic and annihilated it to
the point that it was rendered as obsolete as it began. That was the prime reason without knowing it
that their audience was not restricted to a gays and fans of Rock
subgenres. No album completed the job
better than A Night At The Opera, a single album whose energy and
diversity brought all of the band’s aspirations to a grand peak. It is now the subject of a fine installment
of the great Classic Albums series.
Though mocked in Wayne’s World, Bohemian
Rhapsody remains a landmark single, taking the single-as-orchestra idea The
Beatles and The Beach Boys worked at in the 1960s. By expanding the aspirations to an (literally) arena size, the
song endures as the classic it is. That
it was so bold about loneliness and even his sexuality, it is more ahead of its
time than ever. But that is only one of
several favorites examined closely in this great special. You’re My Best Friend and God Save
The Queen are among the other highlights and since we have reviewed the
actual album elsewhere on the site, I will stop there. I will add that interviews with executives
and critics of the time are very good and the participation of Roger Taylor and
Brian May are vital. John Deacon did
not want to be interviewed, which is the only shortcoming of this show.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1/16 X 9 image is in
line with the better releases the Classic Albums series has been
offering since Eagle picked it up, with most of the footage in this case being
new or older analog video (NTSC and PAL) in good shape. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has little in
the way of surround information, though other installments have in some
cases. Extras include eight bonus
sections, which add or expand on the main program, running as long as the main
program itself.
Of course, no DVD-Video could be expected to sound as good
as either of the higher-definition audio formats and early on, we covered the
multi-channel DVD-Audio version of the album which remains one of the best in
the format. Read more about it at the
following link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/185/Queen+-+A+Night+At+The+Opera+(DVD-Audio)
- Nicholas Sheffo
