What separates the Flash Gordon OST from other film soundtracks and from other Queen albums?
First off, I have to say I agree with what you said below about the links between sci-fi and opera, and I think it stands to reason that you can extend this to the music of Queen as well: Of course, a lot of the more popular contemporary sci-fi cinematic epics, like, say, Star Wars are oft viewed rather sniffily by ‘hard’ sci-fi fans as ’space operas’, almost as if they’re unworthy of being judged alongside Asimov or Philip K. Dick or what-have-you. That’s a kind of compliment as far as I’m concerned, As much as I love ‘proper’ sci-fi, I have to say my own personal taste tends to veer more towards the realms of high camp and outlandish costume design, so Barbarella and Flash Gordon are always going to win out over Fahrenheit 451 or THX-1138. Similarly, my favourite Queen album is Queen II, which is by far their most ludicrous and operatic, even down to including an overture, not to mention shamelessly vaudevillian fare like Fairy Feller’s Master Stroke. It was presumably Dino De Lauren
