Telluride Choral Society: “A Night at the Opera,” 2/23!

15 Feb Telluride Choral Society: “A Night at the Opera,” 2/23!

The Telluride Choral Society‘s fundraiser, “A Night at the Opera,” takes place Sunday, February 23, starting at 6:30 p.m. (Doors, 5:30 p.m.) The evening features the adult choirs, as well as selected soloists and small ensembles singing the music of Broadway, opera, and more and finishing with Queen’s now legendary “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Tickets are $35 for GA; $50/reserved seats. Includes appetizers and entertainment, cash bar, and silent auction. Purchase tickets at sheridanoperahouse.com. 

“They say money can’t buy happiness, darlings! But it does allow you to give it away!,” Rami Malek, in “Bohemian Rhapsody.“

Queen’s epic rock hit “Bohemian Rhapsody” began life sometime in the late ’60s, when Freddie Mercury was a student at Ealing Art College. The musical phenom had a humble beginning, starting out life as a few ideas scribbled on scraps of paper.

“Bohemian Rhapsody” was ultimately featured on Queen’s 1975 release, A Night at the Opera, as a long riff consisting of different sections without a chorus: intro, ballad,  operatic passage, hard rock, and reflective coda.

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ opened Queen’s celebrated Live Aid set in July 1985 and has remained popular ever since. In fact, in 2004, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame, and Mercury’s vocal performance was named by the readers of Rolling Stone as the “Best in Rock History.”

Adding fuel to the fiery six-minute suite, according to online sources, “Bohemian Rhapsody” is the third best-selling single of all-time in the UK and, in December 2018, “Bo Rhap,” as it is affectionately known among Queen fans, was officially proclaimed the world’s most-streamed song of the 20th Century, passing 1.6 billion listens globally across all major streaming services. Just seven months later, in July 2019, the video surpassed one billion streams on YouTube.

“It is one of those songs which has such a fantasy feel about it,” Mercury is quoted as saying. “I think people should just listen to it, think about it, and then make up their own minds as to what it says to them.”

The iconic mini rock opera is the grand finale of the Telluride Choral Society’s fundraiser, aptly titled “A Night at the Opera.” Overall, the evening features large group numbers, solos, and small ensembles doing music from Broadway (“Wicked,” “Les Miserables,” “Phantom of the Opera”) and film (“The Greatest Showman,” “The Sound of Music”).

Admission includes appetizers, entertainment, and silent auction items. What’s more, audience members get to bid in the live auction to see who will get to strike the gong at the end of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” clearly an opportunity of a life-time.

“The program was inspired by one of my board members, Sandy McLaughlin, who suggested that it would be fun if at some point we could perform Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,'” said the Telluride Choral Society’s artistic director Rhonda Muckerman. “Personally I had been a big fan of Queen as a teenager, seeing the group live in concert two times. (What great laser shows!) Since the name of the album that includes ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is Night at the Opera I was inspired to design a concert that included music from opera, Broadway, etc. that concluded with Sandy’s big idea: ‘Bohemian Rhapsody.'”

Quoting Jim Beach from the movie “Bohemian Rhapsody”: “Fortune favors the bold.”