Monteverdi is often credited as being at the forefront of the creation of opera as we know it today. This double CD presented by Jordi Savall and Ton Koopman collect some of the amazing vocal repertoire that spawned from his operatic writing in his life. These two recordings, made originally in 1990 and 1994, are widely acknowledged to be responsible for putting the irreplacable Montserrat Figueras on the map as the authority of this genre as a vocalist. Remastered in 2011 as super audio hybrid CDs, these recordings find that perfect balance in the human voice between singing and declamation; an innovative style of interpretation characterised by great fidelity to the historical sources combined with an extraordinary creative and expressive power, that has exerted a decisive influence on the whole historical music movement.