Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna star in the 2009 Metropolitan Opera production of Puccini’s 'La Rondine'. This new production, directed by Nicholas Joël, was the company’s first staging in 70 years. This elegant romance is the least-known work of the mature Giacomo Puccini. The story concerns a kept woman who defies convention to chase a dream of romantic love with an earnest, if naïve, young man. This Met Opera production features the dynamic soprano Angela Gheorghiu and Frenchborn tenor Roberto Alagna performing the roles of Magda and Ruggero, it blooms into its rightful place in the glorious Puccini canon. 'La Rondine' was commissioned by Vienna’s Carltheater in 1913. Due to the impending outbreak of World War I, premiered in 1917, at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo with Gilda Dalla Rizza and Tito Schipa.

On 2016's Delirium, Italian goth metal outfit Lacuna Coil hit a peak in their catalog with that album's psych-ward sideshow flourish and some of the catchiest songwriting in their careers. With their follow-up, Black Anima, they shed the theatrics and face the sobering reality that plagues us on a deeper, human level, revealing a harder-edged but equally grand version of themselves that mines vulnerability for maximum effect. In Italian, "anima" means soul, and the band bare theirs fully by processing personal growth, coming to grips with hardened adult perspectives, and struggling with real-life problems like loss and self-doubt.

John Coltrane Quintet - The 1961 Helsinki Concert (2007) {Gambit Records 69275}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 176 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 145 Mb
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© 1961, 2007 Gambit Records | 69275
Jazz / Hard Bop / Post Bop / Saxophone

John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy played and recorded together on many occasions. However, given the quality of their music and the high level of creativity involved in every single one of their performances, all new additions are always welcome. In this case, we present a previously unissued concert recorded from a radio broadcast in Helsinki in 1961, during the European tour in which Dolphy joined Trane's legendary quartet. The Helsinki performance showcases both Coltrane and Dolphy's musical explorations in search of new ways to express themselves.

Torme's performances are superb, but this two-disc compilation has no track information whatsoever – no composer or musician credits, no session dates, nothin…

Avishai Cohen impressed a lot of listeners with his soulful contributions to Mark Turner’s Lathe of Heaven album in 2014. Now the charismatic Tel Aviv-born trumpeter has his ECM leader debut in a programme of expansive and impressionistic compositions for jazz quartet (trumpet, piano, bass, drums), augmented by tenor saxophone on a few pieces. Into The Silence is dedicated to the memory of Avishai’s father David, reflecting upon the last days of his life with grace and restraint. Avishai’s tender muted trumpet sets the emotional tone of the music in the album’s opening moments and his gifted cast of musicians explore its implications. Israeli pianist Yonathan Avishai has played with Cohen in many settings and solos creatively inside the trumpeter’s haunting compositions, sometimes illuminating them with the phraseology of the blues.