The new year celebrates 50 years of the release of Queen’s iconic fourth album, ‘A Night At The Opera’ (named after the Marx Brothers' film of the same name), revisited at a vinyl listening session organised by Mumbai-based Adagio on 19^th December 2024. Truly well-deserved as the album, quite like wine, has aged gracefully and, with it, still sounds better with every play.

In moving away from the very obvious Led Zeppelin - influenced sounds on the band’s first two albums, while with the third one, ‘Sheer Heart Attack’, Queen made a sincere effort of transitioning from their obvious influence, it all eventually culminated in this fourth album of theirs.

The production is based primarily on multi-layered guitars and multi-tracked harmonies, but what set up Queen entirely on a music league of their own was the willingness of each of the four members – all songwriters – to experiment, resulting in a selection of unlikely instrumentation pervading the album including, but not limited to, acoustic piano and, as highlighted on the sleeve itself, no synthesizers.

With songs ranging from pop to rock, it really is the off the centre music hall sounds (Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon, Seaside Rendezvous), that makes the album construction unique, ending with guitarist Brian May’s interpretation of  God Save The Queen, initiated in a style not dissimilar to Hendrix’s Star Spangled Banner from Woodstock.

Oh, by the way, this is also the very album that contains the pseudo-operatic Bohemian Rhapsody, composer Freddie Mercury’s almost six-minute autobiographical song, which topped the U.K.singles chart for nine weeks (plus another five weeks at that position following Mercury's death in 1991).

In the U.S., the song peaked at no.9 in 1976, but surpassed that peak to reach no.2 after appearing in the memorable head-banging scene inside a car, in the 1992 film, ‘Wayne's World’. In 2004, the song was deservedly inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame.

In the album liner notes, May is credited with "orchestral backdrops" – a reference to the fact that he played a number of instruments not typically found on Queen songs, playing harp on Love of My Life and acoustic guitar on “39, as well as a (toy) Koto (Japan’s national instrument that can best be described as a plucked half-tube zither) on The Prophet's Song, which really does take harmonies – and channel separation – to a new level. The double-folded album sleeve, with an embossed cover artwork featuring the band's logo and designed by Mercury, is equally iconic too.

After the first three Queen albums had the opening song composed by guitarist Brian May, an opportunity was provided for vocalist-pianist Freddie Mercury to do the same on ‘A Night At The Opera’ with a vicious song written about the owner of Trident Studio-cum-then manager, Death On Two Legs (Dedicated To…)” Norman Sheffield. For the trivia-minded, this observation was brought to the attention of manager “Miami”John Beach (who co-produced ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, the movie), providing him sufficient reason to arrange having drummer Roger Taylor autograph this writer’s 1975 U.K. pressing of ‘A Night At The Opera’ - (“Parag…Thanks for the hospitality”)

Released on: 28^th November 1975

Recorded: August–November 1975

Duration: 43.08

Rating: ****

Reviewed by Parag Kamani

Parag Kamani has been part of the media and entertainment industry across 35 years, having worked for licensors such as Warner Music and EMI/Virgin in music, as well as Warner Bros, Universal Pictures, and Paramount Pictures in the field of films. Parag continues pursuing his passion as a profession.