Only a few fragments survive of Caccini’s Il rapimento di Cefalo (“The Abduction of Cephalus”). It was performed at the festivities marking the marriage of Henry IV of France to Maria de’ Medici in 1600, three days after Peri’s Euridice, the opera with which Caccini was also involved, not to his credit. Repetitions of the brief final chorus, “Ineffabile ardor”, frame three solo numbers, two of which are given here. They are florid, in the manner of “Possente spirto” in Monteverdi’s Orfeo. “Caduca fiamma”, which was sung at the Florentine performances by Peri, comes off better than “Muove si dolce”, which rather taxes the bass soloist.

The other two pieces by Caccini, like the opera excerpts, were published in his collection Le nuove musiche of 1602. “Tutto’l di piango” is a fine setting of a sonnet by Petrarch, ornate again, while “Non ha’l ciel” is a cheerful, triple-time song to sad words. Both are admirably sung; the latter has here acquired interludes for violin, recorder and cornett.

Orfeo dolente by Domenico Belli is a set of five intermedi, performed between the acts of Tasso’s Aminta in the “Florence 1616” of the disc’s title. There is no Charon, or indeed Eurydice, as the action begins after Orpheus has lost her for the second time. Instead, his mother Calliope pleads – in vain – with Pluto. The three Graces try to cheer Orpheus up, and at the end all sing a lament to, as with Caccini, an incongruously cheerful tune.

The music is attractive, and it’s nicely performed. In an increasingly crowded field, the booklet deserves a prize for carelessness. Lines are printed that are not sung and, worse, vice versa; and Proserpine makes an unscheduled appearance in place of Calliope.