Claudio Monteverdi was not the first composer to write opera, but his are the earliest in the standard repertoire.

On today’s Noontime Concert on The Classical Network, the ensemble Vivi Cantando will present “Ohimè!” The title is an allusion to one of Monteverdi’s madrigals, but also featured will be selections from the operas “L’Orfeo,” “Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria,” and “L’incoronazione di Poppea.”

The program is another in the Midtown Concerts series, presented in part by Gotham Early Music Scene, or GEMS. These free lunchtime concerts are held on Thursdays at 1:15 p.m. at the Chapel of St. Bartholomew’s Church, 325 Park Avenue, in New York City.

GEMS is a non-profit corporation that supports and promotes Manhattan artists and organizations devoted to Early Music – music of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, and Early Classical Periods. For more information about concerts at St. Bart’s and other GEMS events, look online at gemsny.org.

Following today’s concert broadcast, for the balance of our time together, we’ll continue with selections celebrating classical music’s most ambitious synthesis of the arts, and three hours of music drawn from the world of opera. There will be an assortment of arias and ensembles, choruses, overtures, ballet music, orchestral excerpts, and transcriptions.

What’s opera, Doc? We’ll get a pretty good idea. Brace yourself for examples from Monteverdi to Robert Moran.

I got a fever, and the only prescription is more opera, from 12 to 4 p.m. EST, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.