re Lear

On 7th February 1857, after a delay of one year due to problems of copyright on a possible production of King Lear, Verdi accepted and signed a new agreement with the Teatro di San Carlo of Naples for an opera to be staged in January or February 1858. Not long after he had put behind the experiences of Simon Boccanegra (June 1857) and Aroldo (August), Verdi, then, had to face the issue of a new subject for Naples, which would no longer be King Lear, discarded for various reasons, and not even El tesorero del Rey by António García Gutiérrez or Ruy Blas by Hugo, to which he had given more serious thought, but Gustave III by Eugène Scribe, a play written in 1833 for Daniel Auber in which the king of Sweden is assassinated, in 1792, by a group of noblemen led by Jacob Ankarström. The composition of the score, between October 1857 and January 1858, went hand in hand with Verdi’s complex relationship with the Neapolitan censors, who would end up distorting the libretto and unnerving the composer to the point that he ended up refusing to stage the opera and breaking his agreement with the theatre.

Although Andy Tillison Diskdrive's The Tangent project is well known in Progressive Rock circles, the music of his earlier band Parallel or 90 Degrees is less known, yet highly respected among many. With all their albums long deleted availability has been difficult, this compilation of the band's work from 1996 to 2001 with as a bonus over 30 minutes of brand new tracks. Is a perfect introduction. This comprehensive selection across all 5 albums also includes several new and unreleased tracks from 2002 album sessions, put on hold by the emerging success of the Tangent. This includes the Po90 original of "Four Egos One War" (later re-imagined by The Tangent) and a version of "Blues For Lear" featuring the guitar and vocal of Roine Stolt. The bands acclaimed "Afterlifecycle" suite is also presented as a continuously running track for the first time.