Tosca is a story of lust and crime, originally written for Sarah Bernhardt by the French playwright, Victorien Sardou. Puccini’s genius lay in his remarkable ability to transform such a tale into an opera of the highest drama and passion. Tosca was central to Puccini’s career and revealed a new refinement and fluency in his work. Through Tosca, a drama of idealistic young love, Puccini was bidding farewell to young manhood, with melodic style and rousing passion.This production of one of Puccini’s best-loved works from the magnificent Roman amphitheatre in Verona features the outstanding performances of Eva Marton in the title role, with Ingvar Wixell as a superbly wicked Scarpia and Giacomo Aragall as the ill-fated Cavaradossi.

In The Key Of Joy is the first new album from Sergio Mendes in 5 years. It features an array of guests artists that join him in creating an album with the forward leaning sound that has come to define his music. Guest artists include Common, Cali y El Dandee, Buddy, Hermeto Pascoal, Roge, Guinga, Sheléa, Sugar Joans, Gracinha Leporace and Joe Pizzulo. The album accompanies the documentary by the same name, which is a joyful cinematic celebration of this singular musical artist who remains as vital and relevant today as when he exploded on the scene with his group, Brasil ’66. The deluxe edition of the album features some of his greatest hits and serves as the official soundtrack to the documentary. It features classic songs by Sergio Mendes such as Mas Que Nada, Never Gonna Let You Go, Fanfarra - Cabua-Le-Le and many more.

This superbly recorded double disc (the original engineer was Eddie Kramer, best-known for his work with Hendrix) captured over a weekend worth of dates in February 1970 at the venerable New York City venue catches the Brit boogie quartet at the peak of their powers. These shows were sandwiched between their triumphant Woodstock set and the release of Cricklewood Green, generally considered the band's best work. They find the group primed through years of roadwork, as well as obviously excited to be playing in front of an appreciative N.Y.C. crowd…

The best of the Brooklyn based funk band formed by Randy Mueller in 1968 as Dynamic Soul. It wasn't until 1975 when the group recorded their first album changed their name to Brass Construction. That album helped change the sound of dance music and began their ascent on both the pop and R&B charts in a career that extended well into the next decade. With hits like "Movin'", "Changin'", "Wake Up" and "Ha Cha Cha (Funktion)", the band certainly made their mark on the world of popular music.

Adapting Thelonious Monk's idiosyncratic works for a septet without piano is no mean feat, but Ben Riley, the legendary pianist's drummer for five years, does a remarkable job on this collection of classic Monk tunes, which includes a cascading version of "Bemsha Swing" and a sprightly jaunt through the thickets of "Gallop's Gallop." The group's arrangements add a surprising heft to numbers like "Rhythm-A-Ning" and "Epistrophy," while preserving the innate delicacy of pieces like "Pannonica."

Richard S. Sinclair is an English progressive rock bassist, guitarist, and vocalist who has been a member of several bands of the Canterbury scene (Caravan, Hatfield and the North, The Wilde Flowers). R.S.V.P. was released in June, 1994 and with the exception of Andy Ward and Jimmy Hastings, all the participants were new: Didier Malherbe, the sax player from Gong, Kit Watkins, the fabulous keyboard player from Happy The Man and later Camel (where he met Andy Ward), Tony Coe (famous jazz clarinet player, from Canterbury, whose father used to play music with Sinclair's), drummer Dave Cohen, a friend from the States who had played with the band on their late 1993 European tour, not forgetting older friends, Pip Pyle (who contributed lyrics to the opening song, the great "What's Rattlin'?") and Hugh Hopper (who played bass on a beautiful improvised piece with Tony Coe on clarinet)…