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Newest temporary exhibition of the House of Music Hungary will be dedicated to Freddie Mercury, and will mark both the 80th anniversary of the star's birth and the 40th anniversary of Queen's concert in Budapest in 2026.
The Hungarian House of Music will dedicate its new temporary exhibition, opening next spring, to Freddie Mercury, the legendary former lead singer of Queen. The exhibition, entitled Freddie, will mark both the 80th anniversary of the star's birth and the 40th anniversary of Queen's concert in Budapest in 2026.
Freddie Mercury's personal items in Budapest
"It's a big deal that the House of Music is able to re-enter the international scene after its successful exhibitions in recent years. Freddie Mercury has been dead for 34 years, but his memory lives on. Only the classics can compare to the voice, expressiveness, relentless diligence, and sense of responsibility that emanated from him and formed the basis of his amazing life's work," said András Batta, the institution's executive director, at a press conference on Wednesday announcing the exhibition.
The exhibition, which opens next spring, will present the singer's life both in the limelight and behind the scenes through hundreds of original personal items and the recollections of friends and colleagues.
Márton Horn, director of the Hungarian House of Music and co-curator of the exhibition, said that Mercury was a shining star of pop-rock music for twenty years from the early 1970s. He added that Queen's most famous song, Bohemian Rhapsody, is still listened to by nearly a million people every day on various platforms around the world.
"Two years ago, in connection with our Divas and Icons exhibition, I came into contact with Tomas Hykell, who has been collecting Freddie Mercury's personal items for fifteen years. The exhibition will be based on this collection, but Peter Freestone, who was the singer's personal assistant and friend for more than ten years, will also be an integral part of the event. He will be the narrator of the exhibition," emphasized Márton Horn.
As mentioned, hundreds of items, stage and everyday clothes, sheet music, creative content, drawings, furniture from his home, Garden Lodge, as well as Mercury's hobbies, his passion for Japan and opera will be on display at the exhibition, which will consist of nine thematic spaces.
The biggest inspiration: a 2023 auction
Tomas Hykel, founder of the World of Freddie project, and Peter Freestone were also present at the press conference.
"A 2023 auction was the biggest inspiration for the collection and the future exhibition. At this auction, initiated by Freddie's friend Mary Austin, his house in England was also sold," recalled Tomas Hykel.
The collector brought and presented some of Mercury's iconic outfits. Among them was his black jacket, which was one of his favorites and which he wore for five or six years; his red sequined suit, which he wore on stage during Queen's 1978-79 European and Japanese tours; the jumpsuit seen in the video for I Want to Break Free; the T-shirt he wore in Budapest in 1986; his Adidas shoes; and the black jacket he wore in the opera scene of the Bohemian Rhapsody video, which is one of the oldest pieces in the collection, being over fifty years old.
Peter Freestone recounted at the event that he first met Mercury in 1979 when he was working at the Royal Ballet in London and was responsible for maintaining the costumes. The star performed at a gala performance at the institution, and after a short conversation, he invited him to work on Queen's six-week tour.
"Later, I worked for the Queen fan club, and after a series of concerts in the US, Freddie asked me to be his personal assistant. For the next ten years, I was with him everywhere he went. We got along very well, perhaps because we had both spent a long time at boarding school in India as children. He was the most polite person I have ever met," Freestone recalled.
One day with an icon
As he said, when he wasn't on tour, Freddie was a normal person in everyday life: he started his day with Earl Grey tea and two slices of toast, usually invited his actor friends over for lunch, browsed through auction listings in the afternoon, ate rabbit at a restaurant in the evening, and then partied with his friends at a bar. "He didn't sign a contract with me, but I got my salary at the end of every month. I had many tasks, I paid the bills, did the shopping, packed and unpacked during tours, and prepared his clothes," added Peter Freestone.
In response to a question, he recounted the story of Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson's joint studio recording, during which they even sang in the bathroom of Jacko's mother's Los Angeles home, taking advantage of the room's excellent acoustics (only one of the three planned songs has been released since then).
The co-curators of the Freddie exhibition are Márton Horn, Gábor Szilágyi, and Endre Mándli Vazul.
Source: MTI.hu
Photos: MTI/Bruzák Noémi
