Daniels is magnificent in the title role - technically brilliant...impassioned...and lyrically supple...The rest of the cast is also good...Faye Newton is a pure and effective Euridice...As one may expect from Andrew Parrott, the instruments are very adroitly deployed and controlled.

the Avie set favours near-vibrato-less singers of ambiguous fach - proper voices indeed (not the vernacular singing occasionally heard in Monteverdi) but not necessarily ones you'd typically hear in modern opera houses...More than usual, instrumentalists are active story-telling participants.

We can hear Parrott's approach most clearly in Orfeo himself...Daniels reserves his emotional outbursts for a very few key moments...In the same vein, Emily van Evera does the tricky Messenger scene with chilling simplicity...'Possente spirto' - the highlight of the work - is a triumph...I'm not sure whether I'm more impressed by [Daniels's] techique of his formidable subtlety.

Charles Daniels gives a sensitive and intimate portrayal of the part of Orfeo. Under Parrott’s direction, the first-rate team of instrumentalists further enrich our experience in a shapely reading of a still lovely, still fresh masterpiece.

the presentation is faithful to the original small-scale salon performances, which were more like poetic oratorios than grand opera. Thus, colourful singing is eschewed in favour of an almost spoken-sung recitative, with comparatively undemonstrative accompaniment from sparse instruments

This new version of Monteverdi's Orfeo is thoroughly researched and reimagined...a gentle, lyrical vision of a miraculous opera.

with Charles Daniels and Faye Newton superb as Orfeo and Euridice, and sensual singing and playing, this is the most beguiling Monteverdi opera recording for years.