Jiaming Tang

Nowadays, the best expressions and attitudes of progressive rock are able to form eclectic mixtures, yet they mostly embrace independent striking values, being either classy, new-waved, drenched, alternative, powerful or sensible, underground or mainstreamed, artistically rooted or experimentally diluted. Up this kind of a scale, Zip Tang, a four-piece band from Chicago, prefers to play something from the classic influences, the nice modern art and the bit of indispensable jam and "new music" - in a manner that, currently, gets optimistic praises, plus in a musical attractive empathy that can score, further on, more and more important progressive qualities…

Cecilia Bartoli ('breathtaking vocal fireworks' Oper Aktuell) and Javier Camarena ('irresistibly funny') take the leads in Rossini's boisterous farce, wittily transposed to post-war France in Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier's 'scintillating production' (Opera Today) for the Zürich Opera House.

Cecilia Bartoli and John Osborn star in Rossini's Otello, a rarely performed opera that has been brought to new life by directors Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier. First presented in Naples in 1816, Rossini's Otello is a gripping musical drama, with a finale no less tragic and disturbing than in Shakespeare's original play. 'Ms Bartoli radiates a kind of charismatic diligence. It is obvious that she has plotted out every musical and dramatic moment: every subtle diminuendo, every gesture.' New York Times