Black Swan (2010)

This 'Swan Lake' is a 'Swan Lake' for our times, capable of transporting the audience to another world. The magic in the story suddenly takes hold of the viewer. Ballet is not simply a way of telling the story. Rather than gestures asking to be deciphered, the choreographer created large-scale, visionary movements closer to an artistic language of symbols and plays on the whole spectrum of human emotions. It always maintains a relationship of creative tension with its surroundings, especially the music, the poetry of the set, the use of light and colour, the texture of the costumes. A key element of this artistic responsibility is to tell the story precisely but openly, without pinning it down, especially the ending an ending which is in a many-faceted sense a 'deliverance'. Does this mean that the lovers are saved? Is the spell's power broken? Are there other kinds of salvation and deliverance? Perhaps even by death and transfiguration? Ballerina Polina Semionova performs the mythic parts of Odette and Odile (white swan and black swan) with her great partner Stanislav Jermakov. The Zurich Opera House Orchestra is conducted by Russian musical director Vladimir Fedoseyev acclaimed in this repertoire.

The Gathering is the first-ever complete cross-career celebration of the U.K.’s much adored melodic rockers musical canon. From the very first demo’s recorded in 1974 right up to the last album, Into The Valley Of The Moonking released in 2009, The Gathering captures every era of Magnum’s life and work over 5 classic discs. Included in the chronology are previously unreleased live tracks; rare demos; hard-to-find single B-Sides featuring extended and alternative versions. Disc 5 of the set is a complete vintage live performance previously unreleased on CD and taken from the Wings Of Heaven tour recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon, London in March 1988. Accompanying the set is a sumptuous 60-page booklet which includes a ‘no stone left un-turned’ ten thousand word story of Magnum written by the Classic Rock magazine news editor, Dave Ling. The booklet also features an extensive pictorial history of the band with many previously unseen photographs and a ‘collectors spotting’ array of rare images of memorabilia and catalogue record releases.