Michael Crawford was superb as Phantom - an astounding and haunting voice. Utterly unique.
Freddie wasn't a musical theatre singer. He didn't have the control or stamina required to perform a demanding work like Phantom night after night. It's a different discipline to rock singing.
However, he might have been able to do a good recording of something like Music Of The Night.
But I don't think he could have done it as well as Crawford.
I completely agree. Musical theatre is actually very difficult to sing properly. I mean, so are Queen songs, but we know from tour recordings that Freddie often changed the melodies to songs, dropping into lower ranges, and damaged his voice. Doing musical theatre without proper training would have been very difficult.
I have heard, and again, this could be completely false information, but it is an interesting tidbit nonetheless (like all rumours!), that he had some help from Mary Hammond (a vocal coach to the stars, she knows Elton quite well, and trained Liza Minelli AND knew Judy Garland) in the latter part of his life. Now this could account for the change in timbre in his voice that happened after Barcelona - because he did completely change his technique around that time for reasons that still remain unclear. All it would have taken would be for Mary Hammond to say to a friend 'Yes, I said to Freddie he'd be wonderful in something like Phantom darling', and then before you know it, half of the London musical theatre scene thinks that Freddie is going to appear in Phantom. This is all speculation of course, but hell, this whole thread is speculation so why not! At least it beats dancing round in a red kimono.
Of course only someone that knew Mary Hammond very well would be able to confirm that she coached him (speculation - it SOUNDS like she did, but that doesn't mean she did!), and she might not want to say - she's known for having a neat line in confidentiality (sometimes.....)
Can I just offer a nugget of thought to the -musical theatre is too hard for Freddie- comments?
Long story short, of course he could've sung it, day in, day out. With training, I believe he'd have had very few problems.
The reason I think this is perhaps, personal. I have spent many years moulding my voice to sing Queen songs. And for the most part, while hard, it works for me. But over the years, my fiancee has asked me to sing musical songs like "All I Ask Of You," "Last Night Of The World," "Music Of The Night," etc. Sometimes it has been difficult, but mostly, a mere change to my breathing and I can transition with some ease. Oh, and I have been in musicals, too. That sort of helps! But to be honest, I've never been trained in any way. My progression in singing is my own, which probably opens me up to some less than stellar technique!
So, overall, while there is a lot of assumption here (on my part), because I'm nowhere near as good a singer as Freddie was, that's what makes me feel that, yes, he could have done it. It's almost obvious to me that he could've risen to the occasion with Phantom. But then, the real question for me would not relate to singing at all! No. Rather, I'd ask - could he have acted it well?
Vocally, he'd have been truly exceptional.
The PROBLEM would have been his body; I don't believe he'd have been able to restrain himself on stage with 'direction'. Look at the overblown movements in the Barcelona video as well as the performance at "La Nit" - there just wouldn't have been any room for him to "be Freddie".
Adam Baboolal : that's an interesting insight. Not many people in QZ can say they tried both Queen's songs and musical like you.
(I did try both, but it's not worth mentioning. No fiancee has ever asked me.)
[QUOTE] [b]dudeofqueen wrote:[/b]
Vocally, he'd have been truly exceptional.
The PROBLEM would have been his body; I don't believe he'd have been able to restrain himself on stage with 'direction'. Look at the overblown movements in the Barcelona video as well as the performance at "La Nit" - there just wouldn't have been any room for him to "be Freddie".[/QUOTE]
It's an interesting point, but I'm not convinced. Having never seen how Freddie Mercury would approach acting*, it's simply too hard to say how closely he'd be willing/able to adhere to the direction he's given, and the predetermined characterisation.
* Though one [b]could[/b] argue that he was acting every time he took to stage with his bombastically confident persona...
Christ on a bike, this would be beyond wonderful if it were true. I think Freddie would have absolutely nailed the Phantom songs (he would have brought a natural drama and emotion to the vocals).
Ok, so it probably is a rumour...
...but, fuck me, what a wonderful thought!
I do recall just after Freddie died, Andrew Lloyd Webber being interviewed on TV and saying he was considering Freddie for the lead role in a future MOVIE version of Phantom.
tomchristie22, your point about acting on stage is true. However, we all know that was Freddie's (mostly) improvisational, and very free style. Whereas musicals demand a certain amount of choreography and timing. In fact, I recently watched a video about Freddie's involvement in the 1979 ballet and, well, here's what Wayne Eagling had to say about choreographing Freddie - https://youtu.be/w5RvJ7bLfvM?t=88 - NOTE: it's at 1:28 if the link doesn't work properly.
P.s. Thanks for that Hobbit. I enjoy the occasional musical, but my fiancee is a big enthusiast!
