Christoph Willibald Gluck

Bohemian-German Opera Composer from Late Baroque to Classical Era

Jun 16, 2007

Christoph W. Gluck's biography - his life, music and influence on 18th-century operatic reforms.

Bohemian-German composer Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787) was born in Erasbach, Germany. He is famous for operas Orfeo ed Euridice, Iphigénie en Tauride, Iphigénie en Aulide and Alceste. He married Marianne Pergin, daughter of a rich Viennese merchant.

Early Life

Aged 18, he studied at Prague University and devoted to instrumentatal music. He was also an excellent singer. He earned some money by playing the organ at churches and giving lessons in singing and violoncello.

Travels to Vienna and Italy

He traveled to Vienna and later to Italy as a musician, under the patronage of the young Prince Ferdinand Lobkowitz. Prince Melzi heard about his talent and induced Gluck to accompany him to Milan. He became chamber musician and student of the Italian composer Giovanni Battista Sammartini, later his good friend. His first opera Artaserse (libretto by Pietro Metastasio) was first performed in Milan and well received.

Travels to London and Paris

Gluck accompanied Prince Lobkowitz to England and visited Paris where he was exposed to French opera. In London, he met Handel and performed operas.

Settled in Vienna

He settled in Vienna as Kapellmeister appointed by the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa.

Collaboration with Ranieri Calzabigi

Gluck met the poet Ranieri Calzabigi and collaborated a ballet-pantomime Don Juan. He also wrote Orfeo ed Euridice (libretto by Calzabigi). He followed up the artistic success of Orfeo with Alceste, another collaboration with Calzabigi

Gluck decided his hand at French opera and moved to Paris. He wrote Iphigenie en Aulide and Orphee, a French revision of Orfeo ed Euridice. It was a triumph, but it also set a controversy between him and Italian music represented by Piccinni, which flared up when his Armide was given, following a French version of Alceste.

Iphigenie en Tauride followed, his greatest success, along with his greatest failure, Echo et Narcisse. He decided to leave Paris. He fell ill with several apoplectic seizures, returned to Vienna by end of October 1779, and retired from public life.

Meeting with Mozart

In 1781 he suffered from a stroke which partly paralyzed him. The following year, a special performance of Mozart's Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail, which Gluck was anxious to hear, was arranged for him in August. He was much delighted that he invited Mozart to dinner. In 1783 Gluck went to Mozart's concert, where Mozart improvised variations on a theme from La Rencontre imprevue. He died in 1787.

Gluck's Legacy

Gluck was recognized as an opera composer who brought important operatic reforms, his thoughts written in the preface of the published score of Alceste, (Eric Blom's translation from Einstein's biography of Gluck in Dent's 'Master Musicians' series.) he said:

"I have striven to restrict music to its true office of serving poetry by means of expression and by following the situations of the story without interrupting the action or stifling it with a useless superfluity of ornaments ..."

Gluck wanted a simpler, direct plot, and direct from the heart. His most famous work Orfeo ed Euridice exactly brings out his sentiments.

Gluck's Major Operas

Sources:

Gluck by Alfred Einstein. Translated by Eric Blom. With revisions, J.M Dent & Sons Ltd. (1964)

The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie, 2nd ed. (2000.)

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