Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck

Presentation by Yasmin Fainstein

Biography

● 1714: Born on July 2nd in Erasbach, Upper Palatinate

(Nowadays one of the seven administrative districts of
Bavaria, Germany).
● 1728: Despite Gluck demonstrated musical curiosity
and talent, his family discouraged to be a musician.
Therefore, he does not appear to have received any
systematic musical education and was largely self-
taught.
● 1731: Enrolled in the University of Prague in 1731 in
the faculties of logic and mathematics, though the
records of his time at the university seems to be lost.
● 1737: Left the university before finishing his studies,
and went to Milan. It is believed that he worked as a musician in the household of the
Lobkowitz family
● 1741: Made his debut as an opera composer with a setting of Metastasio’s Artaserse,
as the first opera for Carnival 1742 at the Regio Ducal Teatro. In the following years
he composed more operas for Canival, among them Demofoonte (1743), La Sofonisba
(1744), and Ippolito (1745).
● 1745: Was invited to become house composer at the King’s Theatre, in England. The
titles presented at this period are La caduta de’ giganti and Artamene, both premiered
in 1746.
● 1752: Married Maria Anna Bergin and settled in Viena for the rest of his life. Also
was named Konzertmeister and later Kapellmeister to the Prince of Saxe-
Hildburghausen. His duties including directing the prince’s orchestra in concerts and
performances of oratorios and operas.
● 1759: Started to compose ballet music for both of the Viennese theaters.
● 1762: Wrote and premiered Orfeo ed Euridice, the first in the series of three so-called
reform operas in which Calzabigi and Gluck reacted against the stylization and
conventions of the Baroque opera seria.
● 1774 -1779: Travelled in three different occasions to Paris to set several titles, among
them: Iphigénie en Aulide, a revised version of Orfeo ed Euridice (with French text)
and his one-act opéra comique L’arbre enchanté for a festival at Versailles.
● 1781: Due a delicate health condition, Gluck was semi-retired from his musical
activity, however he was still present in the Viennese musical life because his operas
were still he staged. This year made a German version of Iphigénie en Tauride
performed in Vienna.
● 1787: Died on November 15th in Vienna.
 Main Works

● Orfeo ed Euridice was his biggest legacy. The libretto, written by R. de’ Calzabigi,
with whom collaborated also in Alceste and Paride ed Elena.
● Arteserse, Demetrio, Demofoonte, Ipermestra, La clemenza de Tito, La danza,
Antigono, Il Parnaso confuso, La corona, Ezio, among others. The libretto in these
operas was written by Metastasio, his more prolific co-creator.
● Iphigénie en Aulide and Iphigénie en Tauride based on the tragedie written by
Euripides. The libretto of the first opera was written by M.F.L. Gand Leblanc du
Roullet, after J. Racine. And in the second opera was written by N.-F. Guillard, after
G. de La Touche.
● Gluck also wrote several sorts of ballets for different occasions sub-genres, from
simple divertissements and commedia dell'arte farces to mythological and pantomime
ballets on well-developed plots. Among them: Les amours de Flore et Zéphire, Le
naufrage, Sémiramis.

The Opera Reform

The most important of Gluck’s innovations in terms of style was the reform of the
opera. By the 1760s, Gluck joined a close group of artistic collaborators, among them
Angiolini (a choreographer), Calzabigi (a librettist but also an aficionado musician), all
guided by Count Durazzo. Their goal was to bring into opera an artistic result that was not
showing the mere virtuosity of singers, that is why it was started customary to address one
syllable per note instead of the typical melismas of the Baroque writing. Also, it was desired
to bring into dramma per musica the spectacle, dance and choral forces that had once been a
part of that genre, and that French opera still retained. These concrete changes in the outline
of the creation of an opera constituted the transition from Baroque to Classicism in opera. In
fact, this transition wasn’t as marked as it may seem, but it changed the course of the
development of the opera because it was the bridge between Monteverdi and Wagner. It is
noteworthy that this development in Gluck’s style was visible not only in the opera but also
in the ballets written at the time. Don Juan and Seramis as much as the operas of the reform
shown the desire of the authors of translating the plot to the theatrical action in the clearest
possible way, so the audience can follow the story by following the action and interaction of
the characters. Gluck and his artistic collaborators were at the quest of a beautiful simplicity
to the service of art.

Musical Style/Legacy

● Gluck was recognized as an extraordinary phenomenon in his lifetime.

● His most important achievement was the counterbalance between music and drama.
He simplified both components, but at the same time his works are quite elaborated. It
has been pointed that there were several common characteristics between Handel’s
and Gluck’s style, however there was a number of differences that separates them.
Gluck’s slower harmonic rhythm and a more independent wind writing.
● The reform of opera owed much to the force of the composer’s personality, musical
and otherwise. But it should also be seen in the context of a wider effort, led more by
literary intellectuals than by composers and dating back several decades, towards
imposition of more rational control on Italian serious opera than currently prevailed.
● Orphée and Euridice, the paradigm of the opera reform is the only title that
constitutes a milestone in the standard (and modern) opera repertoire, but still the
influence of this musical work was meaningful during his lifetime and the years to
come. The classical and literary orientation of Calzabigi is evident in the election of
this piece, and in others to come.
● Gluck’s influence reached Mozart’s Idomeneo in the construction of the scenes and
also in a more direct and declamatory vocal expression.
● Among the Romantics he continued to inspire respect and emulation. Berlioz
supervised productions of Orphée and Alceste in Paris (1859 and 1866). In Orphée
Berlioz created the basis for the version most used over the next century at least, by
restoring the Italian key-scheme in several scenes to accommodate the tessitura of the
title role to a female singer.