Christoph Willibald Gluck

Christoph Willibald Gluck reformed eighteenth-century opera. Born at Erasbach in the Upper Palatinate and brought up in Bohemia, he wrote opera seria for Milan, Venice, London and Prague. The decisive meeting was with the poet Ranieri de' Calzabigi in Vienna. Orfeo ed Euridice in 1762 and Alceste in 1767 brought recitative and aria closer together, expanded the dramatic role of the chorus and orchestra, folded dance into the action, and made vocal display serve the character rather than the singer. The preface to the printed Alceste sets out this reform programme. From 1774 in Paris he applied the same thinking to French tragédie lyrique in Iphigénie en Aulide, Armide and Iphigénie en Tauride, and the city divided into Gluckists and Piccinnists — a quarrel fought in pamphlets. He died in Vienna in 1787. His reforms influenced Berlioz and Wagner. He studied at Prague University and later worked in Milan in the circle of Giovanni Battista Sammartini; his first stage work, Artaserse, was given there in 1741 and brought commissions from Venice, Turin and Crema. A visit to London in 1745 led to performances of Artamene and La caduta de' giganti and brought him the acquaintance of Handel, and after a period in Hamburg he settled in Vienna and composed for the imperial court. Supported by Marie Antoinette and the librettist du Roullet, he began his Paris work in 1773 and returned to Vienna in 1779. The ballet Don Juan, created in Vienna in 1761 with the choreographer Gasparo Angiolini, was another part of his work in theatrical reform.