07-06-2000 – BBC – Queen ballet comes to London

The music of Queen will come to the London ballet stage in September when a tribute to Freddie Mercury opens at Sadler’s Wells. Choerographer Maurice Béjart’s Ballet for Life intersperses Queen tracks with music from Mozart in honour of Mercury and another man, Jorge Donn, a former principal dancer with Béjart’s company.

Both died prematurely from Aids at the age of 45.

The costumes were designed by designer Gianni Versace, who was shot dead outside his Miami home in 1997, months after the show recieved its world première in Paris.

Tracks features include A Kind Of Magic, Bohemian Rhapsody, Radio Ga Ga, I Want To Break Free and The Show Must Go On.

Queen have continued to record and perform together occasionally since Mercury’s death in December 1991.

John Deacon, Brian May and John Taylor’s latest project is a new version of their track We Will Rock You – featuring boy band Five.

Taylor told The Guardian newspaper he thought the ballet was “a wonderful thing, visually stunning, very moving for anyone who knew Freddie Mercury”.

The trio have been invited to the ballet’s première at Sadler’s Wells on 28 September.