2022-07-10 - Bologna, Unipol Arena, Italy, One Italy

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The wait was long, almost interminable: years with tickets in hand and concert continuously postponed due to Covid, but in the end the Italian fans of Queen were finally able to satisfy their expectation, with a double sold out date at the Unipol Arena .

This Rhapsody Tour by the British band together with Adam Lambert is visually magnificent: a huge wall of self-propelled LED screens that sometimes act as a theatrical backdrop, others take us into space or refer to the vintage photos of the band together with Freddie Mercury , in a crescendo of special effects that from time to time surprises the public.

And it is precisely the curtain of a theater that opens revealing the silhouette of Brian May to kick off the dances, with Now I'm Here , which flows directly into Hammer to Fall , allowing the guitarist to shoot the distortion of his Red Special in the face of over 10,000 of the Unipol Arena.

The lineup is obviously a roundup of great hits, to celebrate the history or, as the British would say, the legacy of one of the most important rock bands of all time: from Somebody to Love to The Show Must Go On , passing through Radio Ga Ga , I Want to Break Free and Another One Bites the Dust, the most iconic songs of Queen's discography are all there, with some gems scattered here and there.

The surprise

And probably the most important gem is the only song in the lineup that is not a Queen song: immediately after a very tense version of Don't Stop Me Now , totally surprising and for the first time ever in the history of the band, Lambert he starts singing Nessun Dorma , the famous aria from Puccini's Turandot , with Brian accompanying him playing the orchestral theme on the guitar. An unexpected homage to the lyric tradition of our country, perfectly successful and definitely appreciated by the public.

The memory of Freddie

The absence of what was probably the best frontman of all time always weighs a lot, and is a presence / absence that is constantly felt.

Compared to the last few tours, however, these “new” Queens focus much more on the present, rather than just looking at the past.
If in the first appearances of Adam with Brian and Roger, in fact, the celebration and the memory of Freddie Mercury was constant, now it is almost as if the surviving Queen wanted to tell us that the handover has been completed and that they want to go on for what they are now, not reducing themselves to simply being a band that points out the absence of those who are no longer there.

However, there are still two moments completely dedicated to Freddie's memory: the first, during the last verse of Love of my Life , in which Brian May's acoustic guitar virtually duets with Mercury on the screen, then extending a hand to try to touch, in vain, the former friend and bandmate.

The other is in the break for the encore: on the screen the images of the live at Wembley with Ay-Oh , the famous back and forth between the audience and Freddie, which ends with that ironic and loving "Fuck you!" .

Then there are another couple of songs in which Freddie inevitably returns to the scene, that is, during These Are the Days of Our Lives , masterfully sung by Roger Taylor on the small stage in the middle of the parterre: in the background, photos and videos from the album of memories flow. of the history of Queen and inevitably we also find Freddie. Furthermore, as always, during the opera part of Bohemian Rhapsody , the historical video clip is broadcast with the faces of the band members singing the choirs.

Returning to the new frontman, Lambert knows that his job is probably one of the most difficult in the history of music, which is to replace someone who is, in fact, irreplaceable. But the way he has been doing it for over a decade now - without imitating Freddie - means that most fans have "accepted" him as the band's new lead singer.

The celebration of the myth

The more the concert goes live, the more the celebration becomes magnificent: special effects on screen for A Kind of Magic , a fantastic laser show on Who Wants to Live Forever , until Brian May "takes off" on top of an asteroid for an interminable solo between galaxies and planets, with also a quote from the symphony From the new world by Dvorak.

The visual accompaniment to The Show Must Go On is emblematic , in which collapsed columns are rebuilt, as if to mean that the history of the band has come back to life and continued even after Freddie's death.

The famous robot from the cover of News of the World also peeps out on the screens , to introduce Radio Ga Ga , with the inevitable hands in the sky of the whole audience to accompany the refrain.

Grand finale with Bohemian Rhapsody and encore dedicated to the other two most famous songs of the "queenian" discography: We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions which, among the confetti fired from the stage, closes this two days in Bologna for the British band, greeting the audience on the recorded notes of God Save the Queen .

Between old and new, between past and present, between the memory of those who are no longer there and the desire to continue to bring songs that have made history to the public , Queen and Adam Lambert achieve their goal: a transgenerational audience , from the 20-year-olds who were not yet born when Freddie died to Brian May's peers who grew up with Queen songs. A live probably even more coherent than the first with the new frontman, too tied to the past.

Of course, the "hard and pure" nostalgic for Freddie may not appreciate and see these new Queen as an expensive and pompous cover band, but last night's 10,000 and especially Brian May and Roger Taylor obviously don't think so.

Photo Gallery + Setlist:
https://www.spettakolo.it/2022/07/12/qu ... etta-foto/

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