Artful Evening of Musica Angelica

Seldom included in concert programs are the early decades of operatic composition in 17th century Italy. Musica Angelica’s fascinating program, “The Birth of Opera,” dealt exactly with this period, and in flowing, succinct and non-didactic ways.

The period-instrument ensemble’s latest musicological outing, which drew a rapt audience of respectable size to All-Saints Church in Pasadena on Friday night, used only one singer and an instrumental body of three--but artfully and efficiently. Daniel Parker’s clear-voiced essay of music by Caccini, Monteverdi and Sigismondo d’India became the heart of this engrossing program, but not its only points of charm.

The resourceful tenor delivered firm but modulated tone and textual sensitivity in six excerpts from Monteverdi’s “La Favola d’Orfeo,” Arnalta’s aria from “L’Incoronazione di Poppea” and in India’s “Ahi, chi fia che consoli il dolor mio” and Aeneas’ Farewell by Cavalli. Here, and in Monteverdi’s “Nigra sum,” he was supported solidly by recorder player Inga La Rose, ensemble director Michael Eagan on archlute and viola da gambist Mark Chatfield.

The three instrumentalists, separately and together, showed their individual virtuosities ably, particularly in a heated, irresistible performance of Dario Castello’s Sonata Quarta.