XX-XX-1997 – Béjart Ballet

For only the second time since the death of lead singer Freddie Mercury five years ago, rock group Queen is to play live again.

Band members Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon are to join forces with fellow rock legend Elton John for a special one-off live performance this weekend in Paris at the opening of a new ballet, “Le Presbytère n’a rien perdu de son charme ni le jardin de son éclat” directed and choreographed by ballet legend Maurice Béjart inspired by the life of Freddie Mercury and the music of Queen.

Queen and Elton John will close the opening Gala night in the presence of Madame Chirac with a live version of “The Show Must Go On”, one of Queen’s latter recordings which has become identified as Freddie’s swansong. Elton and Queen have performed together before in memory of Freddie, they appeared on stage together at the Wembley Stadium Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in April 1992.

Performed by Maurice Béjart’s famous ballet company, “Le Presbytère”, is a moving work about AIDS which draws its origins from the death of Freddie in 1991 and Maurice Béjart’s former principal dancer Jorge Donn who died of AIDS almost one year later.

Says Béjart: “Freddie Mercury and Jorge Donn died at the same age. Both had very different personalities, but the same passion for life and extrovert performance. I felt there was a connection between them. Just before, or after, Donn’s death I found this chalet above Montreux. I sat and marvelled at the landscape which stretched over the Lake Geneva as far as the eye could see. The release of Queen’s latest album “Made In Heaven” came a few days later, and I saw on the cover exactly the same view. I’m very sensitive to this kind of coincidence and was inspired to create this ballet.”

“I see it as a joyful ballet, neither sinister nor defeatest. It’s not a ballet about Death, but about people who died too early.”

Béjart’s production, which will be playing for two weeks at the Paris National Theatre de Chaillot, is performed to a score made up of sixteen original Queen recordings together with four Mozart piano and instrumental pieces. Says Béjart, “Mozart is also someone who died young, at 35, ten years younger than Freddie.”

Béjart’s score of Queen material is drawn largely from the “Made In Heaven” album – including “Heaven For Everyone,” “I Was Born To Love You,” “Let Me Live,” and Freddie’s last composition, “A Winter’s Tale,” together with such classic tracks as “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “Radio Ga Ga,” “A Kind Of Magic,” “I Want To Break Free” and “The Show Must Go On.”