arioso

Short ariettas and ariosos keep “Serse,” a comic love story, moving along.

Reviewing the St. Louis premiere for The Times, Anthony Tommasini wrote, “Restless vocal lines shift from plaintive lyrical phrases, to sputtered outbursts, to a style that seems a jazz equivalent of Italianate arioso.”

Later, that arioso’s darkness returns — a reminder, even a relapse — but is fought off by majestic chords.

Monteverdi’s writing in the “Vespers” is organized around a dazzling array of what, for him, were old and new forms: hymn, Gregorian chant, polyphony, operatic monody, arioso and embellished virtuoso singing.

We began with Monteverdi’s “The Coronation of Poppea,” which has long stretches of dramatically charged arioso — a quasi-melodic style that requires crisp delivery of the text.