Montserrat Figueras sings "Dal mio Permesso" from L'Orfeo

eccellente cantante ma monteverdi non è il suo cavallo di battaglia...

is this song in major or minor at the beginning?

It's in major

The musicality here is so beautiful! Brava Savall for such lovely conducting! Figueras finds a gorgeous line and her ornamentation is great.

I fagiolini do this one far better... stronger louder continuo, and a much better singer

The wife is out of key at numerous points, which is not a matter of debate (those who think otherwise are tone deaf). Many gifted singers would love to have had the opportunity to sing this part, but self indulgently, through nothing but past glories and a connection, the part went to you know who. Reminds me a bit of Dorothy Comingore in Citizen Kane. Aside from Zanasi (who's excellent) some of the other singers are also less than stellar. However, the playing's great.

meaning of the phrase. Monteverdi's librettos were written by extraordinary poets and he exploits every sound of every word to make it work with the music: should a singer fail to convey this, the rendering would be incomplete as it is unfortunately here.

I have been recording a lot of Monteverdi as instrumentals and after many not very good attempts I have discovered the secret is to read the words and work out what each phrase is about. For example if he suddenly starts singing about war you can make the articulation more martial or if its about love, more dolce. If you look up my youtube video of Quel Sguardo Sdegnosetto you will see what I mean.

being Italian and a lover of baroque music I usually have no problem in deciding what kind of expression I want to give to the musical phrase of Monteverdi.
my problem is that singing while keeping the correct pitch all through one of his pieces is very difficult for me: I often realise I'm below the correct pitch and it's frustrating.