Performer: Mariana Flores

In the intimate splendour of the Margravial Opera House, Bayreuth Baroque revives Cavalli’s Pompeo Magno with a riot of colors, eight masked countertenors and a Tiepolo-like air of playful chaos.

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.