Christoph Willibald Gluck

Christoph Willibald Gluck, from 1756 Knight of Gluck (Ritter von Gluck, in German), (Erasbach, July 2, 1714-Vienna, November 15, 1787) was a Bohemian composer. He is considered one of the most important opera composers of the Classicism of the second half of the 18th century.

He completely reformed the opera by eliminating the da capo arias, suppressing the long dry harpsichord recitatives and replacing them with recitatives accompanied by the orchestra, dispensing with the castrati and giving greater relevance to the plot of opera. works. Among his most valued works are Orfeo ed Euridice (1762) and Alceste (1767) premiered in Vienna and Iphigénie en Áulide (1774), Armide (1777) and Iphigénie en Táuride (1779) premiered at the Paris Opera.

He had a rivalry with the Italian composer Niccolò Piccinni known as the Complaint of gluckistas and piccinnistas.

Biography

Family and childhood

His parents were originally from Bohemia. Gluck's father Alexander held the trade of superintendent of forests and tolls, and in 1722 became chief superintendent of the Count of Kinsky's forests in Bohemia, a place where music thrived, which exerted a great influence on Gluck.

Gluck's first real school was in Kamnitz, where he was taught singing and a little music. It is thought that he was also able to receive organ or harpsichord lessons at the Komotau Jesuit college, a fact that has not been proven.

Travel

In 1740 Gluck is listed as an instrumentalist and singer in charge of the Lobkowitz family. Prince Francesco Saverio Melzi takes an interest in him and takes him to Milan, where he studies with Giambattista Sammartini. Gluck composed his only non-theatrical work at this time, Six Sonatas for Trio, published in London in 1746.

In 1741, at the Teatro Regio Ducal in Milan, Artaxerxes, by Metastasio set to music by Gluck, was performed, being his first opera. It was a great success, for which reason during the following four years he received numerous commissions. In 1745 he moved to London, another important seat of Italian opera, a city that he left in 1746 to join the Italian company Mingotti and begin a tour of Germany.

In the year 1750, Alexander, Gluck's father, died, which caused him to return to Prague, where he stayed for about a year. He returned to Vienna in 1751, and a year later he was called to Milan to set music to The Clemency of Titus, by Metastasio.

He became friends with Count Giacomo Durazzo, director of the imperial theaters.

He died on November 15, 1787 in Vienna.

Operistic reform

See also Gluck and Mozart Reforms

Gluck, with his reformation of opera in the 18th century, falls precisely halfway between Claudio Monteverdi and Richard Wagner. For twenty-five years, he studied only Italian opera scores, operas in the manner of the Neapolitan school, but he realized that the problem in opera was not a matter of stage production, and therefore began to generate in him a greater concern for the libretto, disregarding the conventional librettists, those based on Metastasio. He focused on eliminating the abuses that had distorted Italian opera in order to return to the function of serving poetry and strengthening the plot.

Finally he found Raniero de Calzabigi, a non-professional musician, admirer of Shakespeare. Gluck and Calzabigi's first work was their opera Orpheus and Eurydice , considered a work of transition, since its artistic, theoretical and practical principles were not yet as fixed as in his later works.

Musical innovations

First of all, he tried to forget all purely musical means of expression in order to use them only as the dramatic situation demands. For Gluck it was not the musical exercise that was most important, but the dramatic structure and the stage elements.

He developed his musical effects with the greatest possible simplicity, being the first to put simple and natural texts into music, taking care and considering the meaning of the words.

He discarded the coloratura, leaving aside the da capo in the arias and the exhibitionism of the singers, as well as the orchestral ritornelli that he considered superfluous and at the same time improved the meaning of the orchestra, elevated the overture, ballet, and chorus as integral parts of his operas, he renounced the dry recitative with harpsichord in favor of the recitative accompanied by orchestra, as well as lessening its contrast with the aria:

• Music serves poetry.
• Music characterizes characters and situations.
• Strophic songs replace the arias da capo, giving an air of simplicity and naturality to the opera.
• Replacement of dry recital by accompanied recital.
• Obertura, choir and ballet are integrated into the opera action.

Works

The table below lists most of the plays composed by Gluck.