You should have seen Joseph Guinta in his shades!

The nearly sold-out house with several hundred movie-music fans in attendance at Hoyt Sherman Place Friday night for the Valentine Pops concert got to see the Des Moines Symphony's conductor with the proper accessories for the theme from "Mission Impossible."

That's what the orchestra's pops concerts are like: beautifully familiar tunes with lots of fun thrown in besides. This time around was no exception.

WHO-TV's Jim Strickland played emcee for the evening. Linda Koehn, who won her chance to be the orchestra's conductor at a fund-raising auction last fall, took the baton for a rousing "Radetzky March" by Johann Strauss Sr.

Listening to the orchestra do old standards like "When I Fall in Love," which enjoyed a revival with "Sleepless in Seattle," and "Tara's Theme" from "Gone with the Win", is a wonderful treat that makes one want to kick back and relax.

When they swung into "More" from "Mondo Cane," it made one want to get up and dance. And, the "Forrest Gump Suite" was fun, too.

Guest artists soprano Hilary James and baritone Douglas LaBrecque were more than up to the task of helping to build moods with the music.

Since the theme for the evening was "A Movie Kind of Love", James sang "Colors of the Wind" from Pocahontas".

LaBrecque offered "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" from "The Lion King". And they collaborated on "A Whole New World" from "Aladdin".

Sounding much like the crooners of old, LaBrecque strutted his stuff on a fascinating arrangement of the Harold Arlen-Johnny Mercer classic "That Old Black Magic".

James did a lovely rendition of "Over the Rainbow" from "The Wizard of Oz".

The duets from "Ghost" and "I Finally Found Someone" from "The Mirror Has Two Faces" were crowd-pleasers.

But the show-stopper of the evening was the one break from the theme of music for the big screen - in favor of a current melody from the stage. LaBrecque, who has performed the title role in "Phantom of the Opera" in Toronto, pulled out all of the stops for "Music of the Night".

All in all, the only quarrel with the evening is that it was over too soon.