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''A Night at the Opera'' is the fourth studio album by British GlamRock band Music/{{Queen|Band}}, released in 1975 through Creator/{{EMI}} in the UK and Creator/ElektraRecords in the US. Yes, it ''is'' named after the famous Creator/TheMarxBrothers' film [[Film/ANightAtTheOpera of the same name]]. Often cited as the most expensive album ever made at the time, with overdubs, vocal harmonies, and effects that resulted in it taking ''four months'' to record at ''seven studios'', the album takes its "No synthesizers" claim and milks it for all it's worth. It's best known for the hit singles "Bohemian Rhapsody", "You're My Best Friend", "I'm In Love With My Car", and "Love Of My Life". A documentary about the creative process behind the making of this album can be seen in the ''Series/ClassicAlbums'' TV documentary series.
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''A Night at the Opera'' is the fourth studio album by British GlamRock band Music/{{Queen|Band}}, released in 1975 through Creator/{{EMI}} in the UK and Creator/ElektraRecords in the US. Yes, it ''is'' named after the famous Creator/TheMarxBrothers' film [[Film/ANightAtTheOpera [[Film/ANightAtTheOpera1935 of the same name]]. Often cited as the most expensive album ever made at the time, with overdubs, vocal harmonies, and effects that resulted in it taking ''four months'' to record at ''seven studios'', the album takes its "No synthesizers" claim and milks it for all it's worth. It's best known for the hit singles "Bohemian Rhapsody", "You're My Best Friend", "I'm In Love With My Car", and "Love Of My Life". A documentary about the creative process behind the making of this album can be seen in the ''Series/ClassicAlbums'' TV documentary series.
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* TheDissTrack: The opening track of ''Music/ANightAtTheOpera'', "Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...)", scathingly rails against the band's previous manager, Norman Sheffield, among other things likening him to "a sewer rat decaying in a cesspool of pride" and outright telling him to kill himself. Sheffield was never mentioned by name in the song, but recognized that it was about him and sued for libel... which instead resulted in the song's subject matter becoming public knowledge. On the ''Live Killers'' version, Music/FreddieMercury ramped it up a bit more by saying it was dedicated to "a motherfucker of a gentleman".
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* TheDissTrack: The opening track of ''Music/ANightAtTheOpera'', track, "Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...)", scathingly rails against the band's previous manager, Norman Sheffield, among other things likening him to "a sewer rat decaying in a cesspool of pride" and outright telling him to kill himself. Sheffield was never mentioned by name in the song, but recognized that it was about him and sued for libel... which instead resulted in the song's subject matter becoming public knowledge. On the ''Live Killers'' version, Music/FreddieMercury ramped it up a bit more by saying it was dedicated to "a motherfucker of a gentleman".
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** The album title references Creator/TheMarxBrothers film ''Film/ANightAtTheOpera''. Their next album would be named after another Marx Brothers film, ''Film/ADayAtTheRaces1937''.
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** The album title references Creator/TheMarxBrothers film ''Film/ANightAtTheOpera''.''Film/ANightAtTheOpera1935''. Their next album would be named after another Marx Brothers film, ''Film/ADayAtTheRaces1937''.
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* AStormIsComing: "The Prophet's Song", reminiscent of the biblical story of Noah.
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!!![=Music/BohemianRhapsody=] redirects here. For the film, see ''Film/BohemianRhapsody''.
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/4_a_night_at_the_opera.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''Take care of those you call your own and keep good company''.]]
''A Night at the Opera'' is the fourth studio album by British GlamRock band Music/{{Queen|Band}}, released in 1975 through Creator/{{EMI}} in the UK and Creator/ElektraRecords in the US. Yes, it ''is'' named after the famous Creator/TheMarxBrothers' film [[Film/ANightAtTheOpera of the same name]]. Often cited as the most expensive album ever made at the time, with overdubs, vocal harmonies, and effects that resulted in it taking ''four months'' to record at ''seven studios'', the album takes its "No synthesizers" claim and milks it for all it's worth. It's best known for the hit singles "Bohemian Rhapsody", "You're My Best Friend", "I'm In Love With My Car", and "Love Of My Life". A documentary about the creative process behind the making of this album can be seen in the ''Series/ClassicAlbums'' TV documentary series.
----
!! Tracklist:
[[AC:Side One]]
# "Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...)" (3:43)
# "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" (1:08)
# "I'm in Love with My Car" (3:05)
# "You're My Best Friend" (2:50)
# "'39" (3:25)
# "Sweet Lady" (4:01)
# "Seaside Rendezvous" (2:13)
[[AC:Side Two]]
# "The Prophet's Song" (8:17)
# "Love of My Life" (3:38)
# "Good Company" (3:26)
# "Bohemian Rhapsody" (5:55)
# "God Save the Queen" (1:11)
----
!!Principal Members:
* John Deacon - bass, piano
* Music/BrianMay - guitar, backing and lead vocals, ukulele, koto, harp
* Music/FreddieMercury - lead vocals, piano
* Roger Taylor - drums, percussion, backing and lead vocals
----
!! Are these the real tropes? Are they just fantasies?
* AnAesop: "Good Company", which provides the image quote. Paraphrased, it could also be summed up as "Don't focus on work to the extent of excluding people from your life."
* AlbumClosure: "God Save the Queen" is the national anthem of the United Kingdom and British colonies. Queen made an instrumental version of this song as the last track of the album. This version became so popular that Queen also used it as the song to close their live shows.
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: "Bohemian Rhapsody"
-->''I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me.''
* AsTheGoodBookSays: "The Prophet's Song" references Noah's Ark and the Great Flood.
* AtTheOperaTonight: Basically what the album title alludes to.
* AudienceParticipationSong: "Love of My Life" would later be turned into a concert duet with the audience.
* BadassBoast:
** "Death on Two Legs"
--->''But now you can kiss my ass goodbye!''
** A band named Queen covering "God Save the Queen"? That's got to be one heck of a boast!
* BohemianParody: TropeNamer. Duh.
* BookEnds: "Good Company" opens with the narrator describing how his pipe-puffing father advised him as a kid to take care of the people around him and "keep all good company." The song ends with the narrator as a pipe-puffing old man himself, contemplating how badly he messed up by alienating the people around him, having failed to follow his dad's advice.
* BoringButPractical: Brian May's method for supplying the harp parts. Since he couldn't actually play the instrument, he recorded each chord separately and edited them together to get the lines he wanted. On audio tape. It took ''days''.
* CallAndResponseSong: "Bohemian Rhapsody" has Freddie doing this with the other band members and sometimes even with his own vocals.
* CarSong: "I'm in Love with My Car", about Roger's love for his vehicle.
* ConceptAlbum: It's often speculated that it's one. After all, when you tie in the title as well as the ridiculous amounts of operatic and classical influences on this album over any other, it makes more than enough sense.
* ContinuityNod:
** "Love of My Life" has "when I get older I will be there at your side to remind you how I still love you, I still love you". Sixteen years later, "These Are the Days of Our Lives" (by a different songwriter though) has an older (and dying) Freddie singing "when I look and I find, I still love you... I still love you." The video makes it all even more tearful, as it was Freddie's last.
** "Seaside Rendezvous" has "I love you madly", while "Was It All Worth It" from ''The Miracle'' has "We love you madly".
* CoverVersion: "God Save the Queen", an electric guitar rendition of the British national anthem (also the melodic basis for various patriotic songs in the US, Russia, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein). Notable in that Queen had never covered anything in the studio prior to this and would not cover anything else.
* DaysOfTheWeekSong: "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" lists the activities that the singer undertakes on each day of the week, ending with the title.
* DefiantToTheEnd: "Bohemian Rhapsody".
-->''Nothing really matters to me, anyway the wind blows.''
* TheDissTrack: The opening track of ''Music/ANightAtTheOpera'', "Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...)", scathingly rails against the band's previous manager, Norman Sheffield, among other things likening him to "a sewer rat decaying in a cesspool of pride" and outright telling him to kill himself. Sheffield was never mentioned by name in the song, but recognized that it was about him and sued for libel... which instead resulted in the song's subject matter becoming public knowledge. On the ''Live Killers'' version, Music/FreddieMercury ramped it up a bit more by saying it was dedicated to "a motherfucker of a gentleman".
* DesignStudentsOrgasm: The album cover, which would eventually become the band's logo.
* EchoingAcoustics: The vocal canon in "The Prophet's Song" uses tape delay to achieve this effect.
* EstablishingSeriesMoment: A variant contained within one album. The intro to album opener "Death on Two Legs" starts off with reverberated piano fading in, which loses its reverb--then sirens and multitracked guitar come in, along with more effects, being led into the actual song with a high scream by Freddie Mercury. This shows off the album's strong focus on effects and overdubs, as well as foreshadowing the repeated {{Song Style Shift}}s on "Bohemian Rhapsody."
* EpicRocking: "The Prophet's Song" is over eight minutes long, and stands as the second-longest track in Queen's discography (only being beat out by the 22:33 [[Music/MadeInHeaven "'13'"]]). "Bohemian Rhapsody" nearly reaches the six-minute mark, but falls short by just five seconds (though this didn't stop [[Film/BohemianRhapsody the film of the same name]] from rounding up to six minutes).
* EveryEpisodeEnding: PlayedWith. A few (but not all) of the songs have similar endings: the song [[FakeOutFadeOut will pretend to end]], but then a [[GratuitousPanning heavily panned]] coda appears out of nowhere. At first, it sounds like it builds up to something, but nothing's really done with it.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: "I'm in Love with My Car" is a song about a man who's in love with his car.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: "Bohemian Rhapsody"
-->''Gotta to leave you all behind and face the truth.''
* FadingIntoTheNextSong:
** "Death on Two Legs" hard cuts into "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon". The latter, in turn, hard cuts into "I'm in Love With My Car".
** The guitar at the end of "The Prophet's Song" fades into the introduction for "Love of My Life".
** The gong at the end of "Bohemian Rhapsody" fades into "God Save the Queen".
* FiveStagesOfGrief: The intro to "Bohemian Rhapsody" starts off "Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?"; the narrator is going through Denial. The part where the narrator talks about "Any way the wind blows, doesn't really matter" is the narrator going through Despair. The opera part, especially the "Will you let me go?", is the narrator Bargaining. The hard rock section is, of course, Anger. In the final, gentle-sounding stage, the narrator shifts back into Despair before finally settling on Acceptance.
* GenreRoulette: HeavyMetal, music hall, HardRock, SoftRock, {{Folk|Music}}, HardRock again, {{Vaudeville}}, ProgressiveRock[[note]]which goes from HardRock to ACappella vocal canon and then back to HardRock[[/note]], piano music, SoftRock again, "Bohemian Rhapsody"[[note]]ACappella, piano, opera, HardRock, piano again; another example of ProgressiveRock overall, though a somewhat more accessible take on the genre than usual[[/note]], and the British National Anthem (in order).
* GoodAngelBadAngel: In "Bohemian Rhapsody", various factions are fighting over the protagonist's soul:
-->I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me,\\
He's just a poor boy from a poor family,\\
Spare him his life from this monstrosity!\\
Easy come, easy go, will you let me go?\\
Bismillah! No, we will not let you go! (Let him go!)\\
Bismillah! We will not let you go. (Let him go!)\\
Bismillah! We will not let you go. (Let me go!)\\
We will not let you go (Let me go!)\\
We will not let you go,\\
[[BigNo No, no, no, no, no, no, no!]]
* GrandFinale: What better way to end an album than with the British national anthem? Particularly when the title contains the name of your band.
* GratuitousFrench: "Seaside Rendezvous" in the title alone, but also in the lyrics:
-->''Fantastique, c'est la vie, mesdames et messieurs''
* GratuitousItalian: "Bohemian Rhapsody" has several Italian words thrown in for rhyme and to tie in with the song's operatic approach.
* GratuitousPanning: The middle section of "The Prophet's Song" revolves heavily around various unaccompanied overdubbed vocals jumping around the stereo channels.
* GriefSong:
** "Bohemian Rhapsody" is [[WordSaladLyrics may]][[MindScrew be]] a MurderBallad about someone who killed a man and feels bad about it.
** "'39" is about an astronaut who goes on a deep-space mission [[spoiler:only to find his lover has passed away due to the time-dilation effect]].
* HeavyMithril:
** "'39", which is a literal space opera.
** "The Prophet's Song" is supposed to be about the Biblical story of Noah, or so Brian May says (he also claims that the song came to him in a dream).
* HypocriticalHumor: In "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon"
-->''I come from London town, I'm just an ordinary guy''\\
''Fridays I go painting in the Louvre''
* {{Instrumentals}}: "God Save the Queen". Despite having official lyrics, the Queen version completely eschews them.
* InTheStyleOf:
** "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon", which is played in the style of a music hall song.
** "Bohemian Rhapsody", which is a mini-opera. Several songs have instrumentation borrowed from classical music.
* IronicEcho: "Good Company", with the line "take care of those you call your own and keep good company".
* ItsAWonderfulPlot: "Bohemian Rhapsody"
-->''Sometimes wish I'd never been born at all.''
* IWantMyMommy: The protagonist in "Bohemian Rhapsody" moans for his mother.
* LonelyAtTheTop: The protagonist of "Good Company" manages to achieve his dream of owning a successful business, but at the cost of driving away his family and friends with his excessive dedication to his work. At the end of the song, he realizes what a tremendous mistake he made in spite of his material success, calling himself insane as a result.
* LonelyPianoPiece: The second movement of "Bohemian Rhapsody" is driven mostly by piano, and is narrated by a convict solemnly contemplating his impending execution. The fifth and final moment goes back to the style, with the convict (still solemnly) accepting his fate.
* LyricalColdOpen: "Bohemian Rhapsody" starts off with an opening acapella chorus.
* LyricalDissonance:
** "'39" is a happy, upbeat skiffle song, with lyrics about [[spoiler:leaving on a space voyage for what seems like one year, but due to the time dilation effect, one hundred years have passed on Earth, and everyone the protagonist loves is long since dead]].
** "Good Company" is also quite sad if you listen past the seemingly upbeat (for most of the song) music, detailing the story of a businessman whose ambition drives off everyone close to him.
* MetalScream: Roger Taylor's piercing falsetto in "39" and "Bohemian Rhapsody".
* MindScrew:
** "Bohemian Rhapsody". However, since the very moment people could analyze it, many have claimed to "get" it, even if Freddie himself has said that the song has no real personal meaning.
** "'39" ''does'' make sense, but seems not to. It helps to know the back story. Seriously. [[OverlyNarrowSuperlative Best song about]] [[spoiler:[[OverlyNarrowSuperlative theoretical Einsteinian space travel-induced time dilation]]]] [[OverlyNarrowSuperlative masquerading as a sea shanty]] [[http://h2g2.com/edited_entry/A733619 EVER]].
* MinisculeRocking: "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" (1:08), "God Save the Queen" (1:11).
* MoodWhiplash:
** The first three tracks. "Death On Two Legs" is a harsh, acerbic 'fuck you' of a song, that abruptly shifts into a tinkly piano solo and Freddie's twee lyrics of "Lazing On a Sunday Afternoon", which itself shifts into the slow, hard, rock ballad "I'm In Love With My Car". Without a single pause.
** The whole album provides examples, mostly related to the GenreRoulette, but frequently within songs as well -- "Bohemian Rhapsody" is the most famous case by far, but "The Prophet's Song" provides examples almost as strong.
* MurderBallad: "Bohemian Rhapsody"
-->''Mama, just killed a man.''
* MythologyGag: The lyrics of "'39" playfully reference one of Freddie's pre-Queen bands, Sour Milk Sea.
* NonAppearingTitle: "Bohemian Rhapsody".
* NoSympathy: The protagonist in "Bohemian Rhapsody" describes himself as "just a poor boy" who needs "no sympathy".
* OneWomanSong: "Sweet Lady".
* PrecisionFStrike: "Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...)" features exactly one curse word in the line "So now you can kiss my ass goodbye!" Additionally, Freddie Mercury introduced the song in the ''Live Killers'' rendition by completing the parenthetical subtitle, "dedicated to a ''motherfucker'' of a gentleman."
* ThePowerOfFriendship: "You're My Best Friend".
-->''You're the best friend that I ever had''\\
''I've been with you such a long time''\\
''You're my sunshine''\\
''And I want you to know that my feelings are true''\\
''I really love you''\\
''You're my best friend''
* TheProphecy: "The Prophet's Song" in which a seer predicts what will happen in the future and urges everyone to listen to his wise words.
* RearrangeTheSong: Because "Bohemian Rhapsody" used a huge amount of overdubbing in the studio, live performances since 1977 frequently cut out the a Capella intro (sometimes swapping in the one from [[Music/Jazz1978 "Mustapha"]]) and use a pre-recorded tape of the operatic section, accompanied by a screen projection of either the relevant portion of the music video or home movies of the band. Other live performances, including the one at UsefulNotes/LiveAid, only feature the ballad section.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: "Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...)" is "dedicated" to the band's former manager, and gives him quite an earful.
* SelfBackingVocalist: Appears ''a lot'' (it's Queen, after all).
** One of the most prominent usages occurs during the middle part of "The Prophet's Song" where Mercury backed his own voice using a delay machine.
** All vocals on "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" and "Love of My Life" were by Freddie, from those in the low register to the high falsetto parts. Brian sang everything on "Good Company".
** The "Bohemian Rhapsody" intro is just eight Freddies stacked atop one another, as are other bits of the song (e.g., "anyway the wind blows" before the solo). In fact, this is the sole reason why Queen never performed the full song live, only select parts of it - for instance, on ''[[LiveAlbum Live Killers]]'', the intro is replaced with Freddie singing a section of [[Music/Jazz1978 "Mustapha"]] acapella, while the section that starts "I see a little silhouetto of a man" is playback from the studio recording pumped into the arena as the audience sings along.
** Freddie and Roger contributed backing vocals on parts of "'39", but the resolutions of each chorus (e.g., "all your letters in the sand cannot heal me like your hand, for my life's still ahead, pity me") are just Brian plus Brian plus Brian, including the falsetto part.
* ShoutOut:
** The album title references Creator/TheMarxBrothers film ''Film/ANightAtTheOpera''. Their next album would be named after another Marx Brothers film, ''Film/ADayAtTheRaces1937''.
*** The Music/BlindGuardian album ''A Night at the Opera'' was named after this album.
** "Bohemian Rhapsody" provides namedrops the title characters of ''Theatre/TheMarriageOfFigaro'' and ''Literature/{{Scaramouche}}'', as well as Italian astronomer UsefulNotes/GalileoGalilei.
** Brian May's electric guitar version of "God Save the Queen" is an homage to Music/JimiHendrix's similar rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Woodstock.
* ShownTheirWork: The description of [[spoiler:TimeDilation]] in "'39" is spot-on. Brian May has since earned a [=PhD=] in astrophysics and had already studied the subject in quite some detail before even forming Queen.
* SingerNameDrop: The Music/BrianMay-sung "Good Company" features an offhanded reference to how the narrator's father called him "Baby B" as a kid.
* SlidingScaleOfRealisticVersusFantastic: "Bohemian Rhapsody"
-->''Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?''
* SongStyleShift: "Bohemian Rhapsody" goes through several: acapella, LonelyPianoPiece, opera, HardRock, and finally back to a LonelyPianoPiece. "The Prophet's Song" is a hard rock song with an extended ''ACappella'' section in the middle, where Freddie goes crazy with the studio overdubs.
* SpaceIsAnOcean: "'39" is about a space voyage, but leans so hard into nautical metaphors that it's a borderline TomatoSurprise when [[spoiler:TimeDilation comes up]].
-->''And the night followed day\\
And the story tellers say\\
That the score brave souls inside\\
For many a lonely day\\
sailed across the milky [[SubvertedRhymeEveryOccasion seas]]\\
Ne'er looked back, never feared, never cried''
* AStormIsComing: "The Prophet's Song", reminiscent of the biblical story of Noah.
* StealthPun: From "Good Company", "The reward of my own efforts, my own limited company" could refer both to the protagonist's lack of friends and the legal institution of a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_company limited company]] (in which the liability of members or subscribers is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company).
* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Roger Taylor sings lead on "I'm in Love with My Car". Brian May sings lead on "'39" and "Good Company".
* StockSoundEffects: "I'm in Love with My Car" ends with car noises (which instead start the song in the single version).
* AStormIsComing: "The Prophet's Song", based on the Biblical story of Noah.
* SubvertedRhymeEveryOccasion: The second verse of "Good Company" juxtaposes the lines "my very good friends and me" and "won't you keep me company?" with "the girl from number four" (deliberately avoiding the obvious rhyme of "the girl from number three")
* SundayIsBoring: "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" is a DaysOfTheWeekSong that details what the singer will do for every day of the week. Naturally, as the title suggests, they'll be lazing instead of doing something.
* UncommonTime:
** "Death on Two Legs" is mostly in CommonTime, but the band skips beats wherever it fits the rhythm of the music or lyrics better, meaning that there are scattered measures of 3/4 or 2/4 thrown in.
** The operatic segment of "Bohemian Rhapsody" has some segments with polyrhythms, using 4/4 over 12/8.
* ViewersAreGeniuses: Without an understanding of [[spoiler:the TimeDilation effect of Einstein's theory of special relativity]], the lyrics of "'39" probably won't make a lick of sense.
* VillainProtagonist: The narrator of "Bohemian Rhapsody" is a self-confessed murderer.
* WalkingSwimsuitScene: "Seaside Rendezvous" evokes images of an old-fashioned beach visit near the seaside.
* TheWalrusWasPaul: Freddie once openly admitted that "Bohemian Rhapsody"'s lyrics have no real meaning to them.
* WhenYouComingHomeDad: "Good Company" is about an ambitious young businessman whose wife leaves him and takes the kids because he's never home. There's a double meaning to his being rewarded with "my own limited company".
* WordSaladLyrics: "'39" is a subversion: it seems like a case of this, but it's actually a case of ViewersAreGeniuses, describing [[spoiler:the effects of TimeDilation in Einstein's special theory of relativity on a group of spacefaring explorers who leave on a voyage that, from their perspective, lasts a year. However, when they return, they find that a hundred years have passed on Earth, and everyone they ever knew or loved here is either dead or massively aged.]] Brian May, as mentioned, has a [=PhD=] in astrophysics and had already studied the subject before forming Queen.
----
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/4_a_night_at_the_opera.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''Take care of those you call your own and keep good company''.]]
''A Night at the Opera'' is the fourth studio album by British GlamRock band Music/{{Queen|Band}}, released in 1975 through Creator/{{EMI}} in the UK and Creator/ElektraRecords in the US. Yes, it ''is'' named after the famous Creator/TheMarxBrothers' film [[Film/ANightAtTheOpera of the same name]]. Often cited as the most expensive album ever made at the time, with overdubs, vocal harmonies, and effects that resulted in it taking ''four months'' to record at ''seven studios'', the album takes its "No synthesizers" claim and milks it for all it's worth. It's best known for the hit singles "Bohemian Rhapsody", "You're My Best Friend", "I'm In Love With My Car", and "Love Of My Life". A documentary about the creative process behind the making of this album can be seen in the ''Series/ClassicAlbums'' TV documentary series.
----
!! Tracklist:
[[AC:Side One]]
# "Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...)" (3:43)
# "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" (1:08)
# "I'm in Love with My Car" (3:05)
# "You're My Best Friend" (2:50)
# "'39" (3:25)
# "Sweet Lady" (4:01)
# "Seaside Rendezvous" (2:13)
[[AC:Side Two]]
# "The Prophet's Song" (8:17)
# "Love of My Life" (3:38)
# "Good Company" (3:26)
# "Bohemian Rhapsody" (5:55)
# "God Save the Queen" (1:11)
----
!!Principal Members:
* John Deacon - bass, piano
* Music/BrianMay - guitar, backing and lead vocals, ukulele, koto, harp
* Music/FreddieMercury - lead vocals, piano
* Roger Taylor - drums, percussion, backing and lead vocals
----
!! Are these the real tropes? Are they just fantasies?
* AnAesop: "Good Company", which provides the image quote. Paraphrased, it could also be summed up as "Don't focus on work to the extent of excluding people from your life."
* AlbumClosure: "God Save the Queen" is the national anthem of the United Kingdom and British colonies. Queen made an instrumental version of this song as the last track of the album. This version became so popular that Queen also used it as the song to close their live shows.
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: "Bohemian Rhapsody"
-->''I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me.''
* AsTheGoodBookSays: "The Prophet's Song" references Noah's Ark and the Great Flood.
* AtTheOperaTonight: Basically what the album title alludes to.
* AudienceParticipationSong: "Love of My Life" would later be turned into a concert duet with the audience.
* BadassBoast:
** "Death on Two Legs"
--->''But now you can kiss my ass goodbye!''
** A band named Queen covering "God Save the Queen"? That's got to be one heck of a boast!
* BohemianParody: TropeNamer. Duh.
* BookEnds: "Good Company" opens with the narrator describing how his pipe-puffing father advised him as a kid to take care of the people around him and "keep all good company." The song ends with the narrator as a pipe-puffing old man himself, contemplating how badly he messed up by alienating the people around him, having failed to follow his dad's advice.
* BoringButPractical: Brian May's method for supplying the harp parts. Since he couldn't actually play the instrument, he recorded each chord separately and edited them together to get the lines he wanted. On audio tape. It took ''days''.
* CallAndResponseSong: "Bohemian Rhapsody" has Freddie doing this with the other band members and sometimes even with his own vocals.
* CarSong: "I'm in Love with My Car", about Roger's love for his vehicle.
* ConceptAlbum: It's often speculated that it's one. After all, when you tie in the title as well as the ridiculous amounts of operatic and classical influences on this album over any other, it makes more than enough sense.
* ContinuityNod:
** "Love of My Life" has "when I get older I will be there at your side to remind you how I still love you, I still love you". Sixteen years later, "These Are the Days of Our Lives" (by a different songwriter though) has an older (and dying) Freddie singing "when I look and I find, I still love you... I still love you." The video makes it all even more tearful, as it was Freddie's last.
** "Seaside Rendezvous" has "I love you madly", while "Was It All Worth It" from ''The Miracle'' has "We love you madly".
* CoverVersion: "God Save the Queen", an electric guitar rendition of the British national anthem (also the melodic basis for various patriotic songs in the US, Russia, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein). Notable in that Queen had never covered anything in the studio prior to this and would not cover anything else.
* DaysOfTheWeekSong: "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" lists the activities that the singer undertakes on each day of the week, ending with the title.
* DefiantToTheEnd: "Bohemian Rhapsody".
-->''Nothing really matters to me, anyway the wind blows.''
* TheDissTrack: The opening track of ''Music/ANightAtTheOpera'', "Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...)", scathingly rails against the band's previous manager, Norman Sheffield, among other things likening him to "a sewer rat decaying in a cesspool of pride" and outright telling him to kill himself. Sheffield was never mentioned by name in the song, but recognized that it was about him and sued for libel... which instead resulted in the song's subject matter becoming public knowledge. On the ''Live Killers'' version, Music/FreddieMercury ramped it up a bit more by saying it was dedicated to "a motherfucker of a gentleman".
* DesignStudentsOrgasm: The album cover, which would eventually become the band's logo.
* EchoingAcoustics: The vocal canon in "The Prophet's Song" uses tape delay to achieve this effect.
* EstablishingSeriesMoment: A variant contained within one album. The intro to album opener "Death on Two Legs" starts off with reverberated piano fading in, which loses its reverb--then sirens and multitracked guitar come in, along with more effects, being led into the actual song with a high scream by Freddie Mercury. This shows off the album's strong focus on effects and overdubs, as well as foreshadowing the repeated {{Song Style Shift}}s on "Bohemian Rhapsody."
* EpicRocking: "The Prophet's Song" is over eight minutes long, and stands as the second-longest track in Queen's discography (only being beat out by the 22:33 [[Music/MadeInHeaven "'13'"]]). "Bohemian Rhapsody" nearly reaches the six-minute mark, but falls short by just five seconds (though this didn't stop [[Film/BohemianRhapsody the film of the same name]] from rounding up to six minutes).
* EveryEpisodeEnding: PlayedWith. A few (but not all) of the songs have similar endings: the song [[FakeOutFadeOut will pretend to end]], but then a [[GratuitousPanning heavily panned]] coda appears out of nowhere. At first, it sounds like it builds up to something, but nothing's really done with it.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: "I'm in Love with My Car" is a song about a man who's in love with his car.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: "Bohemian Rhapsody"
-->''Gotta to leave you all behind and face the truth.''
* FadingIntoTheNextSong:
** "Death on Two Legs" hard cuts into "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon". The latter, in turn, hard cuts into "I'm in Love With My Car".
** The guitar at the end of "The Prophet's Song" fades into the introduction for "Love of My Life".
** The gong at the end of "Bohemian Rhapsody" fades into "God Save the Queen".
* FiveStagesOfGrief: The intro to "Bohemian Rhapsody" starts off "Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?"; the narrator is going through Denial. The part where the narrator talks about "Any way the wind blows, doesn't really matter" is the narrator going through Despair. The opera part, especially the "Will you let me go?", is the narrator Bargaining. The hard rock section is, of course, Anger. In the final, gentle-sounding stage, the narrator shifts back into Despair before finally settling on Acceptance.
* GenreRoulette: HeavyMetal, music hall, HardRock, SoftRock, {{Folk|Music}}, HardRock again, {{Vaudeville}}, ProgressiveRock[[note]]which goes from HardRock to ACappella vocal canon and then back to HardRock[[/note]], piano music, SoftRock again, "Bohemian Rhapsody"[[note]]ACappella, piano, opera, HardRock, piano again; another example of ProgressiveRock overall, though a somewhat more accessible take on the genre than usual[[/note]], and the British National Anthem (in order).
* GoodAngelBadAngel: In "Bohemian Rhapsody", various factions are fighting over the protagonist's soul:
-->I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me,\\
He's just a poor boy from a poor family,\\
Spare him his life from this monstrosity!\\
Easy come, easy go, will you let me go?\\
Bismillah! No, we will not let you go! (Let him go!)\\
Bismillah! We will not let you go. (Let him go!)\\
Bismillah! We will not let you go. (Let me go!)\\
We will not let you go (Let me go!)\\
We will not let you go,\\
[[BigNo No, no, no, no, no, no, no!]]
* GrandFinale: What better way to end an album than with the British national anthem? Particularly when the title contains the name of your band.
* GratuitousFrench: "Seaside Rendezvous" in the title alone, but also in the lyrics:
-->''Fantastique, c'est la vie, mesdames et messieurs''
* GratuitousItalian: "Bohemian Rhapsody" has several Italian words thrown in for rhyme and to tie in with the song's operatic approach.
* GratuitousPanning: The middle section of "The Prophet's Song" revolves heavily around various unaccompanied overdubbed vocals jumping around the stereo channels.
* GriefSong:
** "Bohemian Rhapsody" is [[WordSaladLyrics may]][[MindScrew be]] a MurderBallad about someone who killed a man and feels bad about it.
** "'39" is about an astronaut who goes on a deep-space mission [[spoiler:only to find his lover has passed away due to the time-dilation effect]].
* HeavyMithril:
** "'39", which is a literal space opera.
** "The Prophet's Song" is supposed to be about the Biblical story of Noah, or so Brian May says (he also claims that the song came to him in a dream).
* HypocriticalHumor: In "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon"
-->''I come from London town, I'm just an ordinary guy''\\
''Fridays I go painting in the Louvre''
* {{Instrumentals}}: "God Save the Queen". Despite having official lyrics, the Queen version completely eschews them.
* InTheStyleOf:
** "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon", which is played in the style of a music hall song.
** "Bohemian Rhapsody", which is a mini-opera. Several songs have instrumentation borrowed from classical music.
* IronicEcho: "Good Company", with the line "take care of those you call your own and keep good company".
* ItsAWonderfulPlot: "Bohemian Rhapsody"
-->''Sometimes wish I'd never been born at all.''
* IWantMyMommy: The protagonist in "Bohemian Rhapsody" moans for his mother.
* LonelyAtTheTop: The protagonist of "Good Company" manages to achieve his dream of owning a successful business, but at the cost of driving away his family and friends with his excessive dedication to his work. At the end of the song, he realizes what a tremendous mistake he made in spite of his material success, calling himself insane as a result.
* LonelyPianoPiece: The second movement of "Bohemian Rhapsody" is driven mostly by piano, and is narrated by a convict solemnly contemplating his impending execution. The fifth and final moment goes back to the style, with the convict (still solemnly) accepting his fate.
* LyricalColdOpen: "Bohemian Rhapsody" starts off with an opening acapella chorus.
* LyricalDissonance:
** "'39" is a happy, upbeat skiffle song, with lyrics about [[spoiler:leaving on a space voyage for what seems like one year, but due to the time dilation effect, one hundred years have passed on Earth, and everyone the protagonist loves is long since dead]].
** "Good Company" is also quite sad if you listen past the seemingly upbeat (for most of the song) music, detailing the story of a businessman whose ambition drives off everyone close to him.
* MetalScream: Roger Taylor's piercing falsetto in "39" and "Bohemian Rhapsody".
* MindScrew:
** "Bohemian Rhapsody". However, since the very moment people could analyze it, many have claimed to "get" it, even if Freddie himself has said that the song has no real personal meaning.
** "'39" ''does'' make sense, but seems not to. It helps to know the back story. Seriously. [[OverlyNarrowSuperlative Best song about]] [[spoiler:[[OverlyNarrowSuperlative theoretical Einsteinian space travel-induced time dilation]]]] [[OverlyNarrowSuperlative masquerading as a sea shanty]] [[http://h2g2.com/edited_entry/A733619 EVER]].
* MinisculeRocking: "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" (1:08), "God Save the Queen" (1:11).
* MoodWhiplash:
** The first three tracks. "Death On Two Legs" is a harsh, acerbic 'fuck you' of a song, that abruptly shifts into a tinkly piano solo and Freddie's twee lyrics of "Lazing On a Sunday Afternoon", which itself shifts into the slow, hard, rock ballad "I'm In Love With My Car". Without a single pause.
** The whole album provides examples, mostly related to the GenreRoulette, but frequently within songs as well -- "Bohemian Rhapsody" is the most famous case by far, but "The Prophet's Song" provides examples almost as strong.
* MurderBallad: "Bohemian Rhapsody"
-->''Mama, just killed a man.''
* MythologyGag: The lyrics of "'39" playfully reference one of Freddie's pre-Queen bands, Sour Milk Sea.
* NonAppearingTitle: "Bohemian Rhapsody".
* NoSympathy: The protagonist in "Bohemian Rhapsody" describes himself as "just a poor boy" who needs "no sympathy".
* OneWomanSong: "Sweet Lady".
* PrecisionFStrike: "Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...)" features exactly one curse word in the line "So now you can kiss my ass goodbye!" Additionally, Freddie Mercury introduced the song in the ''Live Killers'' rendition by completing the parenthetical subtitle, "dedicated to a ''motherfucker'' of a gentleman."
* ThePowerOfFriendship: "You're My Best Friend".
-->''You're the best friend that I ever had''\\
''I've been with you such a long time''\\
''You're my sunshine''\\
''And I want you to know that my feelings are true''\\
''I really love you''\\
''You're my best friend''
* TheProphecy: "The Prophet's Song" in which a seer predicts what will happen in the future and urges everyone to listen to his wise words.
* RearrangeTheSong: Because "Bohemian Rhapsody" used a huge amount of overdubbing in the studio, live performances since 1977 frequently cut out the a Capella intro (sometimes swapping in the one from [[Music/Jazz1978 "Mustapha"]]) and use a pre-recorded tape of the operatic section, accompanied by a screen projection of either the relevant portion of the music video or home movies of the band. Other live performances, including the one at UsefulNotes/LiveAid, only feature the ballad section.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: "Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...)" is "dedicated" to the band's former manager, and gives him quite an earful.
* SelfBackingVocalist: Appears ''a lot'' (it's Queen, after all).
** One of the most prominent usages occurs during the middle part of "The Prophet's Song" where Mercury backed his own voice using a delay machine.
** All vocals on "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" and "Love of My Life" were by Freddie, from those in the low register to the high falsetto parts. Brian sang everything on "Good Company".
** The "Bohemian Rhapsody" intro is just eight Freddies stacked atop one another, as are other bits of the song (e.g., "anyway the wind blows" before the solo). In fact, this is the sole reason why Queen never performed the full song live, only select parts of it - for instance, on ''[[LiveAlbum Live Killers]]'', the intro is replaced with Freddie singing a section of [[Music/Jazz1978 "Mustapha"]] acapella, while the section that starts "I see a little silhouetto of a man" is playback from the studio recording pumped into the arena as the audience sings along.
** Freddie and Roger contributed backing vocals on parts of "'39", but the resolutions of each chorus (e.g., "all your letters in the sand cannot heal me like your hand, for my life's still ahead, pity me") are just Brian plus Brian plus Brian, including the falsetto part.
* ShoutOut:
** The album title references Creator/TheMarxBrothers film ''Film/ANightAtTheOpera''. Their next album would be named after another Marx Brothers film, ''Film/ADayAtTheRaces1937''.
*** The Music/BlindGuardian album ''A Night at the Opera'' was named after this album.
** "Bohemian Rhapsody" provides namedrops the title characters of ''Theatre/TheMarriageOfFigaro'' and ''Literature/{{Scaramouche}}'', as well as Italian astronomer UsefulNotes/GalileoGalilei.
** Brian May's electric guitar version of "God Save the Queen" is an homage to Music/JimiHendrix's similar rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Woodstock.
* ShownTheirWork: The description of [[spoiler:TimeDilation]] in "'39" is spot-on. Brian May has since earned a [=PhD=] in astrophysics and had already studied the subject in quite some detail before even forming Queen.
* SingerNameDrop: The Music/BrianMay-sung "Good Company" features an offhanded reference to how the narrator's father called him "Baby B" as a kid.
* SlidingScaleOfRealisticVersusFantastic: "Bohemian Rhapsody"
-->''Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?''
* SongStyleShift: "Bohemian Rhapsody" goes through several: acapella, LonelyPianoPiece, opera, HardRock, and finally back to a LonelyPianoPiece. "The Prophet's Song" is a hard rock song with an extended ''ACappella'' section in the middle, where Freddie goes crazy with the studio overdubs.
* SpaceIsAnOcean: "'39" is about a space voyage, but leans so hard into nautical metaphors that it's a borderline TomatoSurprise when [[spoiler:TimeDilation comes up]].
-->''And the night followed day\\
And the story tellers say\\
That the score brave souls inside\\
For many a lonely day\\
sailed across the milky [[SubvertedRhymeEveryOccasion seas]]\\
Ne'er looked back, never feared, never cried''
* AStormIsComing: "The Prophet's Song", reminiscent of the biblical story of Noah.
* StealthPun: From "Good Company", "The reward of my own efforts, my own limited company" could refer both to the protagonist's lack of friends and the legal institution of a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_company limited company]] (in which the liability of members or subscribers is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company).
* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Roger Taylor sings lead on "I'm in Love with My Car". Brian May sings lead on "'39" and "Good Company".
* StockSoundEffects: "I'm in Love with My Car" ends with car noises (which instead start the song in the single version).
* AStormIsComing: "The Prophet's Song", based on the Biblical story of Noah.
* SubvertedRhymeEveryOccasion: The second verse of "Good Company" juxtaposes the lines "my very good friends and me" and "won't you keep me company?" with "the girl from number four" (deliberately avoiding the obvious rhyme of "the girl from number three")
* SundayIsBoring: "Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" is a DaysOfTheWeekSong that details what the singer will do for every day of the week. Naturally, as the title suggests, they'll be lazing instead of doing something.
* UncommonTime:
** "Death on Two Legs" is mostly in CommonTime, but the band skips beats wherever it fits the rhythm of the music or lyrics better, meaning that there are scattered measures of 3/4 or 2/4 thrown in.
** The operatic segment of "Bohemian Rhapsody" has some segments with polyrhythms, using 4/4 over 12/8.
* ViewersAreGeniuses: Without an understanding of [[spoiler:the TimeDilation effect of Einstein's theory of special relativity]], the lyrics of "'39" probably won't make a lick of sense.
* VillainProtagonist: The narrator of "Bohemian Rhapsody" is a self-confessed murderer.
* WalkingSwimsuitScene: "Seaside Rendezvous" evokes images of an old-fashioned beach visit near the seaside.
* TheWalrusWasPaul: Freddie once openly admitted that "Bohemian Rhapsody"'s lyrics have no real meaning to them.
* WhenYouComingHomeDad: "Good Company" is about an ambitious young businessman whose wife leaves him and takes the kids because he's never home. There's a double meaning to his being rewarded with "my own limited company".
* WordSaladLyrics: "'39" is a subversion: it seems like a case of this, but it's actually a case of ViewersAreGeniuses, describing [[spoiler:the effects of TimeDilation in Einstein's special theory of relativity on a group of spacefaring explorers who leave on a voyage that, from their perspective, lasts a year. However, when they return, they find that a hundred years have passed on Earth, and everyone they ever knew or loved here is either dead or massively aged.]] Brian May, as mentioned, has a [=PhD=] in astrophysics and had already studied the subject before forming Queen.
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