Composer of the Month 7/2014: Christoph Willibald Gluck
(selected by Peter van Dessel / Belgium)
Austria 13.11.1987
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Christoph Willibald Gluck was born on July 2, 1714 at Erasbach / Germany. He learned several
instruments and had a beautiful voice. As a teenager, he left the parental home and came
over Prague and Vienna to Milan, where he in 1737 got a job in an orchestra. Here he learned
to know the principles of the opera and was trained to become a composer by Giovanni Battista
Sammartini. On December 26, 1741 his first opera "Artaserse" was premiered in Milan. In the
following years he wrote several operas for the stages in Milan, Venice and Crema. For several
years he then travelled with an opera troupe. Appearances are known from London, Dresden,
Copenhagen and Vienna, where he settled in 1750. After the performance of the opera
"Antigono" in Rome Christoph Willibald Gluck in 1756 was raised a Knight of the Golden Spur
by Pope Benedict XIV.
During the following years, Gluck turned completely from the Italian opera seria and edited Frenchfrom opéra comique instead. However, over time he had fundamental concerns about content and form of opera, because both forms of opera had been far from what opera should be. Gluck wanted to bring the opera back to its origin, where human drama, passion and feelings are important, and where words and music were equivalent. His reform operas were first be performed in Vienna. Later he spread his ideas also in Paris, where there was an unexpected dispute between the adherents of Gluck and the adherents of the Italian Opera Maestro Niccolò Piccinni after the performance of "Iphigenia in Aulis" 1774. Between 1774 and 1779 Gluck traveled as a famous composer between Vienna and Paris back and forth. After that, he lived largely reclusive in Vienna. Christoph Willibald Gluck was one of the most important opera composers of the second half of the 18th century and is regarded as the first internationally recognized star composer. He left around 50 operas as well as several ballets and instrumental works. Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner and Richard Strauss saw in his music theory the beginning of modern stage music. Christoph Willibald Gluck died on November 15, 1787 in Vienna. In July 2014, the music world is celebrating his 300th birth anniversary. More composer can be found in the members only section |