Christophe Rousset’s latest concert with Les Talens Lyriques was titled Love and Death in Venice and it was a beautifully programmed exploration of the Italian city’s baroque legacy that emphasised its liberal, cosmopolitan appeal for composers in the 17th century. Monteverdi was represented by duets from his Seventh Book of Madrigals and scenes from L’Incoronazione di Poppea. There were extracts from operas by his younger contemporaries Luigi Rossi and Francesco Cavalli, along with instrumental works by Dario Castello and Johann Rosenmüller. We know little about Castello biographically; Rosenmüller, who was gay, left Leipzig for Venice after effectively being outed.

Rousset’s singers were sopranos Jodie Devos and Judith van Wanroij, both fine artists, though their voices didn’t always blend ideally. Devos has a cutting, laser-like brightness of tone, while Van Wanroij possesses greater warmth and a wider expressive range. The contrast proved telling in the operatic extracts. Devos made a calculating Poppea opposite Van Wanroij’s ardent, besotted Nero in L’Incoronazione, and was an impulsive Eurydice to Van Wanroij’s introspective Orpheus in scenes from Rossi’s Orfeo. In the duets, however, Devos’s penetrating tone occasionally became over-prominent. Pur Ti Miro from Poppea was neither as evenly balanced nor as sensual as it might have been.

Rousset directed the proceedings from the harpsichord, meanwhile, with his customary sensitivity and elan, and the instrumental contributions gave great pleasure. There was expressive virtuosity from violinist Gilone Gaubert-Jacques in the Second Sonata from Book I of Castello’s Sonate Concertate in Stil Moderno. Cellist Emmanuel Jacques came into his own in Rosenmüller’s Sesta Sonata a3, an austere yet intense work, most beautifully performed.