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Extraordinary singing and acting from Mariana Flores stands out in a joyous concert performance of one of the first operas ever written.

Strozzi's music is vivid and spectacular: period specialists Flores and Leonardo García Alarcón make a strong case for it, with an emotional slice of Argentina for an encore.

Cappella Mediterranea blows life into Eliogabalo’s dark carnival as imagined by Thomas Jolly.

A joyously fresh and zesty Orfeo, played on a selection of period instruments and with a magnificent leading tenor, makes for a superb evening of Monteverdi with Sir John Eliot Gardiner. 

The Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists performed Monteverdi's L'Orfeo in Costa Mesa.

At the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam a performance of Michelangelo Falvetti’s recently unearthed gem Il diluvio universale was a joyful labour of love.