Blind Guardian "A Night At The Opera"

A Night at the Opera is a 2002 album by the German power metal band Blind Guardian. It is named after the 1975 Queen album of the same name, which is itself named after the Marx brothers film of the same name.

This album continues a stylistic change from power metal into a more progressive sound, with multiple overlaid vocals, choirs, orchestral keys and guitar leads and less emphasis on powerful guitar riffs and heavy rhythms. As a result, drummer Thomas Stauch would leave the group, citing dissatisfaction with the direction the group was going in.

There are different versions of the album with a bonus track of "Harvest of Sorrow". This song has 7 different versions, as follows:
1. English studio version (B-side to "And Then There Was Silence" single)
2. English live version (On 2003 album "Live")
3. English acoustic version (Japan: Victor - VICP-61739) 
4. Spanish version ("Mies del Dolor") (Spain: Virgin - 0724381182628, USA: Century Media - CM 7995-2)
5. Argentinian version ("La Cosecha del Dolor") (Argentina: NEMS Enterprises - NEMS 284, and 1trk bonus CD: Virgin - VGP412)
6. Italian version ("Frutto del Buio") (Italy: Virgin - 0724381195826)
7. French version ("Moisson de Peine") (1trk bonus CD in France: Virgin - 0724354637827)


The song "Battlefield" is featured as the music in the heavy metal edition of the Adult Swim game, Robot Unicorn Attack.

The album features the concepts and themes familiar to Blind Guardian fans, such as historical battles and religious references.

• "Precious Jerusalem" is based on the final days of Jesus of Nazareth and his temptation in the desert.
• "Battlefield" is based on Song of Hildebrandt, an old German tale of a father and son who find themselves in a duel to the death.
• "Under the Ice" has connections to the Iliad, focuses on Cassandra and what happened to her after the Trojan War, particularly from The Oresteia.
• "Sadly Sings Destiny" is based on the religious aspect of the Messiah in the Old Testament, and tells of the crucifixion of Jesus from the point of view of a character who reluctantly helps fulfil the prophecy, by doing such things as building the cross and weaving the Crown of Thorns.
• "The Maiden and the Minstrel Knight" is based on an episode from the story of Tristan und Isolde.
• "Wait for an Answer" is a story Hansi wrote about an unusual friendship between a hare and a fox. They both have to avoid the genocide created by a tribe of crows in a story about hope and war.
• "The Soulforged" is based on the Dragonlance saga's tales of the mage Raistlin Majere.
• "Age of False Innocence" is about Galileo Galilei.
• "Punishment Divine" is about Nietzsche's decline into insanity where he imagines himself being judged by a court of saints.
• "And Then There Was Silence" is about Cassandra's visions of the coming Trojan War. It was inspired by Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and Virgil's Aeneid.
• "Harvest of Sorrow" is based on Tolkien's tragic story of Túrin Turambar, which appears in the Silmarillion.

Recorded and mixed at The Twilight Hall Studios, Grefrath, Germany from October 2000 through December 2001, with the exception of diverse backing vocal recordings which were recorded at Hammer Music Studios, Hamburg, Germany.