Director Walter Sutcliffe’s modern-day production of Monteverdi’s take on Emperor Nero scores some hits but as many misses. Musically, though, it is outstanding

Twenty-eight years in the making, Rinaldo Alessandrini finally completes his wonderful survey of Monteverdi madrigals, and the complete set is a joy to behold

Vividly sung by an ensemble of 12 and exquisitely played by period group La Serenissima, Olivia Fuchs’s lively production of Monterverdi’s opera is full of contemporary references

It was the energy of the baroque gem Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda that first drew choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh, but its enigmatic heroine became an obsession. She explains why she has given Clorinda a new story – and an extra body

The period instrument group under Christina Pluhar brought a verve and clarity to to this ambiguous work that reminded us of its closeness to Monteverdi’s early operatic masterpieces

The secular side of the composer’s output was the focus of this imaginative and vivid festival programme

A terrific cast, led by Tom Randle, emphasise the violence in this version of the Monteverdi opera, transposed to a traumatised modern-day Ithaca

Over the past few months, our Know the Score series introduced 20 great composers. But what of the many we couldn’t write about? Martin Kettle suggests some other names whose music is well worth exploring

The tenor sings the title role and also conducts in this new recording that interest and spark but eccentricities; instrumentalists I Gemelli are very fine

A revelatory performance of the madrigals of 17th-century composer Barbara Strozzi was a fine beginning for Kings Place’s year-long festival

The central pair give stunningly emotional turns in this hypnotic and erotically charged reworking of Monteverdi’s operas

Monteverdi’s masterwork is given new life, two opera titans take on Verdi, and the London Sinfonietta launches a gender-fluid game show

Balthasar Neumann Choir and Ensemble/Heras-Casado
(Harmonia Mundi)

I Fagiolini delivered a gutsy, refined rendering of Monteverdi’s Other Vespers and the Brecon Baroque gave the Four Seasons thrilling new life

Two proms this week, led by Raphaël Pichon and William Christie, featured unconventional and captivating performances of Monteverdi and Handel’s great choral works