Who was Freddie Mercury really before he became Freddie Mercury?
It is from this question that he starts Becoming Freddie Mercury. Farrokh Bulsara and the invention of a mask, the new essay by Danny H. Cortese, to be released on 20 October 2026 by Vololibero Edizioni, with a preface by Claudio Trotta.
The book chooses to move away from the canonical biography to focus on a more complex process: the construction of an artistic identity. Farrokh Bulsara, a young Parsi born in Zanzibar and raised between Africa, India and England, progressively becomes Freddie Mercury through a series of transformations involving his name, body, voice, theatricality and relationship with the public.
The “mask” evoked by the subtitle therefore does not coincide with a simple disguise. Cortese interprets it as an instrument of creation, a form through which Mercury builds and makes visible a new identity. The path of the essay crosses musicology, philosophy, psychology and theatrical theory, relating the artist to references apparently distant from rock such as the Commedia dell’Arte, Oscar Wilde and Fernando Pessoa, as well as with camp aesthetics.
At its core remains the deeply theatrical nature of Queen’s music. Mercury’s operation does not only concern live performance, but involves the entire artistic device: from stage presence to writing, up to the progressive contamination between rock and opera. A journey that finds one of its most significant moments in the meeting with Montserrat Caballé and in the creation of Barcelona.
Becoming Freddie Mercury thus tries to shift the gaze from the myth to its creation. Not to downsize the icon, but to understand which artistic tools allowed Bulsara to transform a condition of otherness into a precise form of self-representation.
THE AUTHOR
Danny H. Cortese (Gallipoli – 1968) He came to theater direction and performative research after a career in cultural journalism. In 2008 he founded Officina Chinaski, a company with which he develops experimental drama projects, cultural events, readings, film clubs and training activities. In parallel with his theatrical activity, he published works of poetry and poetic prose. He was born and lives in Gallipoli
INFO
BECOMING FREDDIE MERCURY Farrokh Bulsara and the Invention of a Mask by Danny H. Cortese
Foreword by Claudio Trotta
FORMAT: 140×210 PAGES: 128 PRICE: €19.00 ISBN 978-88-32085-63-1
