by Jay Nordlinger [NY Sun, 20 February 2007]

Monteverdi is making a bit of a splash around the world. Virgin Classics has released "Combattimento," which offers arias and duets from Monteverdi's opera, or proto-opera, "Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda." He wrote this piece in 1624, and it is based on Tasso's "Gerusalemme Liberata" — a tale of the Crusades.