"In Paris With You", Clémentine Beauvais

This is fanfiction. It is 100% a Modern-Day AU of "Eugene Onegin" -- in verse, with Pushkin-style authorial digressions and reflections on the characters -- and it's brilliantly done. And in translation, none the less; I haven't seen the French original, but this is a piece of masterly writing in its own right, and I can't imagine the difficulty of trying to get the flavour of such a thing. ( Read more... )

Russian matters

I was absolutely astonished to discover (from reading the YouTube comments) that Episode 10 of the Let's get to know one another 1980s TV broadcast, which I had just been watching, actually features Veniamin Smekhov in the lead role of the University Professor -- completely transformed not only by the traditional method of beard and glasses, but in voice and body language as well :-D (Well, that confirms that they were putting a good deal of behind-the-scenes talent into these teaching broadcasts; unfortunately dates on the programmes in this series seem to vary from 1977 to 1981, so I don't know whether it was the serious actor in experimental theatre or the fan-idol 'noble Athos' who was being employed to voice the lead character for this little educational film. A year or two either way would have made a good deal of difference at that particular juncture!)( Read more... )

( Corrections to New Year's duet )