Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643) stood at the musical transition point from the Renaissance era to the Baroque, and his music captures the beauty, passion, and brilliance of that moment in music history. His collection of Vespers pieces, Vespro della Beata Vergine, published in 1610, features choral and instrumental music of sublime power and beauty, vocal solos of operatic brilliance, and he even borrows the toccata from his own opera Orfeo to open this collection of sacred music. The Oriana Singers are the soloists in these performances and provide the vocal forces along with City Voices, the Oak Park-based community chorus. They are joined by an ensemble of period instruments. These performances bring to Chicago-area audiences a musical masterpiece that is rarely heard live.