QUEEN’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” Reinterpreted By The English National Ballet, Royal Academy Of Music, And Trinity Boys Choir; Videos Streaming

To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”, English National Ballet, Royal Academy Of Music and Trinity Boys Choir, have all reinterpreted the groundbreaking song, creating their own unique homages to its incredible musical legacy.

Each originally created interpretation highlights the song’s stunning versatility. It provides the perfect soundtrack to a beautifully choreographed piece by English National Ballet’s Soloist, James Streeter and danced by Lead Principal Erina Takahashi and First Soloist, James Forbat.

Streeter describes the inspiration behind his idea as; “As time has passed, Queen and Freddie still live on so strongly in all of us. At the start of the dance, as we stare at what looks like the silhouette of Freddie’s statue, a female appears and as she begins dancing around him, with every touch and the endless desire for Freddie, he is slowly brought back to life.”

Charlie Piper, a Royal Academy of Music composition alumnus, composed an arrangement of the song for a string quartet featuring final year students Kate Oswin – violin, Alicia Berendse – violin, Lydia Abell – viola, and Ghislaine McMullin – cello, all of the Behn Quartet. “We initially found the challenge of performing a string quartet arrangement of Bohemian Rhapsody quite daunting; it is such an iconic song and so initially it was difficult to know how to approach it, particularly coming from a classical background. But the moment we got in the practice room it was clear that the music had such a universal message and intensity that we could really tap into, and we could hear Freddie Mercury’s voice in our heads as we were playing. We’ve loved every minute of recording Bohemian Rhapsody and being part of such a great project celebrating its legacy.” – Lydia Abell, The Behn Quartet

Trinity Boys Choir Director, David Swinson, created a choral vocal arrangement with 40 boys from the choir taking part in the recording. “We felt hugely privileged to be invited to present our version of this rock classic but we also felt a weight of responsibility.” said David. “It is impossible to improve on the original so our intention was to demonstrate our love for the song with our enthusiasm. The lyrics are extraordinarily powerful and thoughtful and we also hope that by having them sung by young voices, they will be heard afresh by audiences.”

“Bohemian Rhapsody” was Queen’s first ever #1 single and the 1975 UK Christmas #1 holding the top position for nine weeks. It is the first song ever to get to #1 in the UK twice with the same version, and is also the only single to have been Christmas #1 twice with the same version. The second was upon its re-release (as a double A-side single with “These Are the Days of Our Lives”) in 1991 following Mercury’s death, staying at number one for five weeks, eventually becoming the UK’s third best-selling single of all time.

Freddie wrote the whole song – including the composite harmonies – on telephone books and scraps of paper. Today, it is still one of the world’s most well known and well loved songs, continuing to top ‘favourite song’ opinion polls and be discovered by new generations of music fans over and over again. Queen’s A Night At The Odeon album is out now. Recorded at the band’s legendary 1975 Christmas Eve show, the album features the first ever live recording of “Bohemian Rhapsody” alongside 15 other live tracks from their first four visionary albums.