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Just got back from seeing Sergei Eisenstein's 1927 silent classic, Battleship Potemkin at the Barbican, with a score by the Pet Shop Boys, performed by them with the string section (and one trumpet) of the BBC Concert Orchestra. The film tells the story of the 1905 Russian naval mutiny (the...

I watched La vie en rose last night. Now I'd heard a lot of comments about the disjointed nature of the way in which the film tells the story of Edith Piaf, and I watched in expectation of finding it at least slightly annoying or distracting, but this really wasn't the case at all. I felt that...

It seems we haven't got somewhere to discuss what we're reading – so I thought I'd start a thread. I've recently finished reading Martin Cruz Smith's Gorky Park. A thriller set predominantly in Moscow in the 1970s, it features the debut of Arkady Renko, a Soviet investigator, who finds himself...

Anyone else read this?

Anyone else got a Flickr site? Mine is here As a taster, here's a candid shot of a hotel porter, taken this lunchtime in Russell Square, London, as he waited to hail a cab. Windows on Clink Street, on the South Bank, London. 'The Gherkin' (actually Swiss Re at St Mary Axe, London) by Sir...

Assuming it's okay here – I don't know whether members of these boards are acquainted with The Divine Comedy and thought that I'd mention this act. Not a band – despite the name – but Northern Irishman Neil Hannon and assorted session musicians. Quirky, difficult to label (other than as...

It's 23 April, so Happy Shakespeare's Day to all my compatriots – and any other fans of the Bard. Far better – and far more English – to celebrate our national poet (whose birth and death fell on this day, according to legend) than someone from Cappadocia, who never even visited these shores...

I thought that members might be interested in this article from today's UK Guardian about female conductors. At least now I know why I'd never make it as a conductor. ;)

I'm sure that most posters here are familiar with the Carl Orff version, but I wonder if anyone can point me in the direction of a CD of the ancient musical setting. I've been told that there was one around in the 1990s, but for all my use of Google and Amazon (in three countries) I can't trace...

Developing a question raised by Kurkikohtaus in the thread on Czech composers, in terms of sung music, do you prefer the libretto to be sung in the original language or your own and why? To elaborate a little: when I saw Die Fledermaus a few weeks ago, it was in an English translation. Now...

I grew up in a home where there was plenty of musical snobbery – yet the only classical recordings available were Reader's Digest compilations which hardly ever saw the turntable. The only positive family input was being taken to see D'Oyly Carte do Gilbert & Sullivan a number of times in my...

Hello All, Having just registered, I thought I'd introduce myself. I live and work in London, England, where I'm a freelance hackette and writer. My musical tastes are catholic but, after studying music until 19 at school, I rather set 'classical' music to one side for some years and am now...