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Bohemian Rhapsody... as a classical playlist
What would Queen's 1975 hit Bohemian Rhapsody sound like as a classical music playlist? Enjoy a real life Night at the Opera as we take inspiration from Freddie Mercury's lyrics, matching them up with the best classical pieces.
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1. Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
It certainly feels like fantasy when you're listening to Schumann's Fantasy Pieces for clarinet and piano, Op. 73.
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2. Open your eyes, look up to the skies and see
Turns out Mendelssohn urged us to do just that in his oratorio, Elijah, in a movement titled Lift Thine Eyes, 129 years before the release of Bohemian Rhapsody.
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3. I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy
If, however, you do fancy a little sympathy, may we recommend Haydn's delightful song, Sympathy, for voice and piano?
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4. Anyway the wind blows, doesn't really matter to me
Wind, you say? How about a blast of Stravinsky's Symphonies of Wind Instruments, composed in 1920.
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5. Put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger now he's dead
There's drama and trigger-pulling aplenty in Puccini's Tosca, as lead tenor Cavaradossi is executed by firing squad in the final act. Picture: YouTube
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6. Mama, life had just begun
It doesn't get any closer to the beginning of all life on earth than Haydn's spectacular oratorio, The Creation.
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7. Goodbye everybody, I've got to go
So said the performers in Haydn's 'Farewell' Symphony, as the music instructs them to walk off stage once they've finished playing.
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8. I see a little silhouetto of a man
So did Czech composer Dvořák, when he composed his Silhouettes, Op. 8.
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9. Scaramouche, scaramouche, will you do the fandango?
Yes, yes he will, if you play him Boccherini's Fandango from Quintet No. 4 in D.
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10. Thunderbolt and lightning, very very frightening me
Allow Strauss' Thunder and Lightening polka to allay your fears with its cheery string tunes and percussion.
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11. Galileo, Galileo
Don't you mean Galileo Galilei, Philip Glass' 2002 opera?
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12. Bismillah! No! We will not let you go! Let him go!
If you're looking for an angry multi-voiced debate of Biblical proportions, it doesn't come much more exciting and terrifying than Bach's St John Passion, as Pontius Pilate and the crowd decide whether to let Jesus go or crucify him.
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13. Galileo, Figaro
Figaros crop up quite a lot in the world of opera: Have a listen to Rossini's The Barber of Seville, or Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro.
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14. Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me
If you're a violinist, Baroque composer Tartini also has a devil put aside for you, in the form of the fiendishly difficult Devil's Trill Sonata.
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15. Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here
There's only one appropriate soundtrack if this is how you're feeling: Elmer Bernstein's The Great Escape.
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16. Anyway the wind blows...
...as long as it's in a south-facing direction. Traditional tune Blow the wind Southerly is certainly worth a listen.
