The term 'Baroque' in music covers a period of around 150 years, from 1600 to 1750, and this collection of six operatic masterpieces shows the diversity of musical experience to be found from this era. All of these excellent Maggio Musicale Fiorentino productions were recorded in Florence, a city that was witness to the origins of opera and saw it's rise in popularity with leading names such as Monteverdi and Vivaldi. Lully and Handel represent opera's spread throughout Europe and it's adaptation to national tastes, establishing theatrical traditions of romance and tragedy that are still universal to audiences today