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Princess Diana had an impressive soundtrack of pop and classical greats of the ’80s and ’90s at her fingertips as she worked from her desk at home.

George Michael, Elton John’s Greatest Hits Volume II, Diana Ross (One Woman, The Ultimate Collection), Dancing on the Ceiling by Lionel Richie, Verdi’s Il Trovatore (featuring her signature — perhaps to ward off anyone taking it!) and Carreras, Domingo and Pavarotti are kept in a case full of old cassette tapes that Prince William and Prince Harry have added to a display at Buckingham Palace.

Diana’s sons picked out the special...

By 1935, the Marx Brothers already had five movies to add to their already extensive Broadway and Vaudeville resume, among them the legendary Duck Soup and the near-classics Animal Crackers and Monkey Business. As we’ve often seen, however, some of our most beloved Hollywood favorites flopped upon first release. 1933’s Duck Soup, specifically, was the last of a five-picture deal the Brothers had at Paramount, and its commercial failure would spell a parting of the ways between the studio and the iconic comedy team.

Enter Irving G. Thalberg, the wunderkind who helped build MGM into a powerhouse. Perhaps best known today for the namesake honor given to producers at each year’s Academy Awards, Thalberg left an indelible mark on Hollywood before his untimely death in 1937 at the age of 36. In addition to launching such innovations as the first production code and the use of audience response questionnaires to hone...

It doesn’t have a single movie star, there were no early Thursday night screenings and you didn’t miss the trailer, because there wasn’t one. But “The Met: Live in HD” just missed the top ten on Rentrak’s box office charts this weekend. Saturday’s live transmission of the Metropolitan Opera’s performance of Verdi’s popular opera “Il Trovatore,” which kicked off the 10th season of the Met’s broadcasts from New York, grossed $2 million from 930 theaters in North America. That topped Oscar hopeful “The Walk” ($1.5 million from 448 IMAX theaters), the Eli Roth horror film “The Green Inferno” ($1.3 million from 1,543) and.

This time on the podcast, Scott is joined by David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett to discuss Luchino Visconti’s Senso.

About the film:

This lush, Technicolor tragic romance from Luchino Visconti stars Alida Valli as a nineteenth-century Italian countess who, during the Austrian occupation of her country, puts her marriage and political principles on the line by engaging in a torrid affair with a dashing Austrian lieutenant, played by Farley Granger. Gilded with ornate costumes and sets and a rich classical soundtrack, and featuring fearless performances, this operatic melodrama is an extraordinary evocation of reckless emotions and deranged lust, from one of the cinema’s great sensualists.

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Episode Links:

Senso (1954) – The Criterion Collection Senso and Sensibility – The Criterion Collection Senso (1954) – IMDb Senso – Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia Roger Ebert’s Great...

With every awards season comes a flood of “best of” compilations and top ten lists, but film scores can be tricky in that department. After all, different composers are operating on different levels, each one working toward a separate goal in his or her respective picture. Brian Tyler aims for something propulsive and heroic in Iron Man 3, while Saving Mr. Banks’ score apparently features Thomas Newman doing his best Thomas Newman impersonation. Lists can be tough when scores operate so independently of one another

So without further ado, I present my favorite film scores from 2013. Unranked:

Philomena – Alexandre Desplat

Saying Alexandre Desplat likes himself a mean waltz is like saying Johnny Depp likes himself a little eye makeup: they’re both gross understatements. Scoring Stephen Frears’ loose adaptation of Philomena Lee’s search for the son she was forced to give up at birth, Desplat makes his affinity abundantly clear with the title track,...

Need a break from the summer heat and blockbusters?

The Metropolitan Opera and Ncm Fathom Events once again present the fifth year of Summer HD Encores, a series of encore performances from the groundbreaking Live in HD series, in nearly 400 select U.S. cinemas nationwide including five theaters in St. Louis.

The Summer HD Encore series feature four of the most popular operas from previous seasons:

Bizet’s “Carmen” - June 19 Verdi’s “Il Trovatore” - June 26 Rossini’s “Armida” - July 10 Verdi’s “La Traviata” - July 17

Tickets for The Met: Live in HD Summer 2013 Encores, shown in cinemas Wednesday evenings at 7:00 p.m. in all time zones, are available at www.FathomEvents.com or at participating theater box offices.

The Summer Encore Series will be playing at the following movie theaters in your area:

Esquire 7 Chesterfield 14 with IMAX Gravois Bluffs Stadium 12 O’Fallon Stadium 14 St. Louis Mills...

Rome -- Bruno Bartoletti, an orchestra conductor who was associated with the Lyric Opera of Chicago for a half-century, and who championed modern opera as well as classic works, died on Sunday in his native Tuscany, a day before his 87th birthday.

The Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, where the maestro had served as artistic director from 1985 until 1991, said Bartoletti died in a Florence hospital after a long illness.

In a career that saw Bartoletti conduct well into his 80s – he directed Giacomo Puccini's `'Manon Lescaut"at Florence's Teatro Comunale in February 2011 – he served as the first music director of Chicago's Lyric Opera, starting as guest conductor there in 1956, when he was relatively unknown.

Bartoletti was 30 when the then 2-year-old Lyric Opera needed a replacement conductor for Giuseppe Verdi's `'Il Trovatore" in 1956. Baritone Tito Gobbi endorsed him, and Bartoletti made his American debut with the company. He conducted...