The Music of Queen with the Utah Symphony

It should come as no surprise to anyone that I am a huge fan of the band Queen and since I also love the Utah Symphony last night's concert at Abravanel Hall was pretty much the best!  I loved every minute of it and I sang along with every word (and also played a mean air guitar and air piano).  The orchestra was joined by guest conductor Brent Havens and vocalist MiG Ayesa (who played Galileo Figaro in multiple productions of the musical We Will Rock You) to perform some of Queen's most well-known songs.  They began with "Tie Your Mother Down" and then continued with "Play the Game," and "These Are the Days of Our Lives."  Then "Another One Bites the Dust" got everyone up dancing and that was so much fun to see at Abravanel Hall!  Next came "Under Pressure" and "Killer Queen" and then Ayesa gave an incredibly sultry rendition of "My Melancholy Blues" (at one point he was lying across the podium) which featured an extended piano introduction.  This was followed by "One Vision" which included an extended drum solo.  The first set concluded with a beautiful and poignant performance of "The Show Must Go On" which is the final song recorded by Freddie Mercury.  After the intermission, Ayesa and the orchestra performed a rousing rendition of "Fat Bottomed Girls" followed by "You're My Best Friend."  One of my favorite moments of the show came next when the orchestra performed an incredible arrangement by Havens of "Who Wants to Live Forever?"  This brought tears to my eyes (hearing it performed live always makes me emotional).  The crowd got on their feet once again during "A Crazy Thing Called Love" and "Hammer to Fall" and then lit up their phones during "Somebody to Love."  A highly theatrical performance of "Bohemian Rhapsody" was another highlight for me (obviously) and I love that Ayesa wore a gold frock coat borrowed from the costume department of the Utah Opera for this song!  The concert concluded with "We Will Rock You" (with the requisite audience participation) and "We Are the Champions."  Ayesa gave an incredibly dynamic performance with lots of funny interactions with the crowd and even replicated Mercury's famous call and response!  I think many of Queen's songs are very symphonic so they sounded fantastic played by the orchestra!  I loved this show and had so much fun singing along with the energetic crowd!

Note:  Quite a few years ago there was a reality show called Rockstar: INXS on TV.  It was a competition to pick a new lead singer for INXS and Ayesa made it to the final three.  I remember him because I really wanted him to win!