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81-546: Méhul was born at Givet in Ardennes to Jean-François Méhul, a wine merchant, and his wife Marie-Cécile (née Keuly). His first music lessons came from a blind local organist. When he showed promise, he was sent to study with a German musician and organist, Wilhelm Hanser  [ de ] , at the monastery of Lavaldieu, a few miles from Givet. Here Méhul developed his lifelong love of flowers. In 1778 or 1779 he went to Paris and began to study with Jean-Frédéric Edelmann ,

162-565: A glassharmonica in Hickford's Rooms , a concert hall in Brewer Street , Soho. Handel's own experience of Gluck pleased that composer less: Charles Burney reports Handel as saying that "he [Gluck] knows no more of contrapunto , as my cook, Waltz ". The years 1747 and 1748 brought Gluck two highly prestigious engagements. First came a commission to produce an opera for Pillnitz , performed by Pietro Mingotti 's troupe, to celebrate

243-526: A harpsichord player and friend of Méhul's idol Christoph Willibald Gluck . Méhul's first published composition was a book of piano pieces in 1783. He also arranged airs from popular operas and by the late 1780s he had begun to think about an operatic career for himself. In 1787, the writer Valadier offered Méhul one of his libretti, Cora , which had been rejected by Gluck in 1785. The Académie royale de musique (the Paris Opéra ) put Méhul's work, under

324-476: A German version of Iphigénie en Tauride . Gluck dominated the season's proceedings with 32 performances. On 23 March 1783 he seems to have attended a concert by Mozart who played KV 455, variations on La Rencontre imprévue by Gluck (Wq. 32). On 15 November 1787, lunching with friends, Gluck suffered a heart arrhythmia and died a few hours later, at the age of 73. Usually, it is mentioned Gluck had several strokes and became paralyzed on his right side. Robl,

405-519: A German version of La rencontre imprévue , had been performed 51 times. His musical heir in Paris was the composer Antonio Salieri , who had been Gluck's protégé since he arrived in Vienna in 1767, and later had made friends with Gluck. Gluck brought Salieri to Paris with him and bequeathed him the libretto for Les Danaïdes by François-Louis Gand Le Bland Du Roullet and baron de Tschudi . The opera

486-401: A correct and well disposed design, where the lights and shades only seem to animate the figures, without altering the out-line." On 11 September Burney went to see Gluck to say goodbye; Gluck was still in bed, as he used to work in the night. As his operas were not appreciated by Frederick II of Prussia , Gluck began to focus on France. Under the patronage of Marie Antoinette, who had married

567-588: A degree, and vanishes from the historical record until 1737. Nevertheless, the memories of his family and indirect references to this period in later documents give good grounds for believing Gluck arrived in Vienna in 1734, where he likely was employed by the Lobkowitz family at their palace in the Minoritenplatz . Philipp Hyazinth Lobkowitz, Gluck's father's employer, died on 21 December 1734, and his successor, his brother Johann Georg Christian Lobkowicz ,

648-605: A family doctor, had doubts as Gluck was still able to play his clavicord or piano in 1783. At a formal commemoration on 8 April 1788, his friend, pupil and successor Salieri conducted Gluck's De profundis , and a Requiem by the Italian composer Niccolò Jommelli was given. His death opened the way for Mozart at court, according to H. C. Robbins Landon . Gluck was buried in the Matzleinsdorfer Friedhof . On 29 September 1890, his remains were transferred to

729-610: A festival in 1754 and La danza for the eighth birthday of the future Emperor Leopold II the following year. After his opera Antigono was performed in Rome in February 1756, Gluck was made a Knight of the Golden Spur by Pope Benedict XIV . From that time on, Gluck used the title "Ritter von Gluck" or "Chevalier de Gluck". Gluck turned his back on Italian opera seria and began to write opéra comiques . In 1761 Gluck produced

810-642: A flourishing school of disciples in Paris, who would dominate the French stage throughout the Revolutionary and Napoleonic period. As well as Salieri, they included Sacchini , Cherubini , Méhul and Spontini . His greatest French admirer would be Hector Berlioz , whose epic Les Troyens may be seen as the culmination of the Gluckian tradition. Though Gluck wrote no operas in German, his example influenced

891-488: A libretto by Metastasio , the opera opened the Milanese Carnival of 1742. According to one anecdote, the public would not accept Gluck's style until he inserted an aria in the lighter Milanese manner for contrast. Nevertheless, Gluck composed an opera for each of the next four Carnivals at Milan , with renowned castrato Giovanni Carestini appearing in many of the performances, so the reaction to Artaserse

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972-467: A list of several composers of Czech opéras-comiques (although such a work by Gluck has yet to be documented). A presentation by Irene Brandenburg classifying Gluck as a Bohemian composer was considered controversial by her German colleagues. In 1737 Gluck arrived in Milan, and was introduced to Giovanni Battista Sammartini , who, according to Giuseppe Carpani , taught Gluck "practical knowledge of all

1053-555: A more humorous example, with its expanded horn section portraying yelping hounds as well as giving hunting calls. (Sir Thomas Beecham frequently programmed this piece to showcase the Royal Philharmonic horn section.) Méhul's key works of the 1790s were Euphrosine , Stratonice , Mélidore et Phrosine and Ariodant . Ariodant , though a failure at its premiere in 1799, has come in for particular praise from critics. Elizabeth Bartlet calls it "Mehul's best work of

1134-496: A more important work was soon to follow. On 5 October 1762, Orfeo ed Euridice was given its first performance, on a libretto by Calzabigi, set to music by Gluck. Gluck tried to achieve a noble, Neo-Classical or "beautiful simplicity". The dances were arranged by Angiolini and the title role was taken by Guadagni, a catalytic force in Gluck's reform, renowned for his unorthodox acting and singing style. Orfeo , which has never left

1215-524: A position as forest-master under Count Philipp Joseph von Kinsky in Böhmisch Kamnitz , where Kinsky had increased his domains. The family moved to the forester's house in nearby Oberkreibitz . In 1727 Alexander moved with his family to Eisenberg (Jezeří in Horní Jiřetín ) to take his final post, head forester to Prince Philipp Hyazinth von Lobkowitz. It is not sure if Christoph was sent to

1296-534: A preface to Alceste , which Gluck signed, setting out the principles of their reforms: Joseph von Sonnenfels praised Gluck's tremendous imagination and the setting after attending a performance of Alceste . In 1769 Gluck performed his operas in Parma . On 2 September 1771 Charles Burney visited Gluck, living in Sankt Marx. Burney thought Gluck's preface, in which Gluck gives his “reasons for deviating from

1377-532: A royal double wedding that would unite the ruling families of Bavaria and Saxony. Le nozze d'Ercole e d'Ebe , a festa teatrale , borrowed heavily from earlier works, and even from Gluck's teacher Sammartini. The success of this work brought Gluck to the attention of the Viennese court, and, ahead of such a figure as Johann Adolph Hasse , he was selected to set Metastasio's La Semiramide riconosciuta to celebrate Maria Theresa 's birthday. Vittoria Tesi took

1458-461: A venereal disease from the prima donna and composing the opera La contesa de' numi for the court at Copenhagen, where he repeated his concert on the glassharmonica. In 1750 he abandoned Mingotti's group for another company established by a former member of the Mingotti troupe, Giovanni Battista Locatelli . The main effect of this was that Gluck returned to Prague on a more consistent basis. For

1539-584: Is known, including her surname, but she probably grew up in the same area as she was named after Saint Walburga , the sister of Saint Willibald , the first bishop of nearby Eichstätt . The couple probably married around 1711. In 1713 Alexander built a house in Erasbach and by 12 September had taken possession of it. Although there is no documentary record with Gluck's birthdate at the time of his birth, he himself gave it as 2 July 1714 on an official document requested by Paris that he signed in 1785 in Vienna in

1620-586: Is the most famous of these later operas, but its success in France was short-lived. In Germany, however, it won many admirers throughout the nineteenth century, including Wagner. A melody from Joseph is very similar to a popular folk melody widely known in Germany which was used as a song in the Imperial German Navy , and adapted, notoriously, as the tune for the co-national anthem of Nazi Germany ,

1701-492: Is thought to have been Gluck's employer in Vienna from 1735 to 1736. Two operas with texts Gluck himself was later to set were performed during this period: Antonio Caldara 's La clemenza di Tito (1734) and Le cinesi (1735). It is likely that the Lobkowitz family introduced Gluck to the Milanese nobleman Prince Antonio Maria Melzi, who engaged Gluck to become a player in his orchestra in Milan. The 65-year-old prince married

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1782-527: The Horst-Wessel-Lied . It is unclear, however, whether Méhul's melody was the actual provenance of the melody. Besides operas, Méhul composed a number of songs for the festivals of the republic (often commissioned by the emperor Napoleon), cantatas , and five symphonies in the years 1797 and 1808 to 1810. Mehul's First Symphony (1808) is notable for its dissonant and violent mood, and has been compared to Beethoven 's Symphony No. 5 , written in

1863-598: The French Revolution , Méhul composed many patriotic songs and propaganda pieces, the most famous of which is the Chant du départ . Méhul was rewarded by becoming the first composer named to the newly founded Institut de France in 1795. He also held a post as one of the five inspectors of the Conservatoire de Paris . Méhul was on friendly terms with Napoleon and became one of the first Frenchmen to receive

1944-572: The Jesuit college in Chomutov , 20 km southwest. The Alsatian painter Johann Christian von Mannlich relates in his memoirs, published in 1810, that Gluck told him about his early life in 1774. He quotes Gluck as saying: My father was forest master at N... in Bohemia and he planned that eventually I should succeed him. In my homeland everyone is musical; music is taught in the schools, and in

2025-483: The Légion d'honneur . Méhul's operatic success was not as great in the first decade of the nineteenth century as it had been in the 1790s, although works such as Joseph (1807) became famous abroad, particularly in Germany. The failure of his opera Les amazones in 1811 was a severe blow and virtually ended his career as a composer for the theatre. Despite his friendship with Napoleon, Méhul's public standing survived

2106-537: The Treaty of Baden ended the War of Spanish Succession and brought Erasbach under Bavarian control. Gluck's father had to reapply to retain his position and received no salary until after 1715, when he began receiving 20 gulden . He obtained additional employment in the vicinity of Weidenwang in 1715 as a forester in the service of Seligenporten Monastery, and after 1715, also with Plankstetten Abbey. In 1716 Alexander Gluck

2187-554: The University of Prague in 1731. Gerhard and Renate Croll find this astonishing, and other biographers have been unable to find any documents supporting Moser's claim. At the time the University of Prague boasted a flourishing musical scene that included performances of both Italian opera and oratorio . Gluck sang and played violin and cello, and also the organ at Týn Church . Gluck eventually left Prague without taking

2268-489: The Zentralfriedhof ; a tomb was erected containing the original plaque. Although only half of his work survived after a fire in 1809, Gluck's musical legacy includes approximately 35 complete full-length operas plus around a dozen shorter operas and operatic introductions, as well as numerous ballets and instrumental works. His reforms influenced Mozart , particularly his opera Idomeneo (1781). He left behind

2349-494: The 16-year-old Maria Renata, Countess of Harrach, on 3 January 1737, and not long after returned with Gluck to Milan. According to the music historian Daniel Heartz , there has been considerable controversy concerning Gluck's native language. Gluck's protégé in Vienna, the Italian-born Antonio Salieri , wrote in his memoirs (translated into German by Ignaz von Mosel ), that "Gluck, whose native tongue

2430-490: The 1760s, among them Orfeo ed Euridice and Alceste , he broke the stranglehold that Metastasian opera seria had enjoyed for much of the century. Gluck introduced more drama by using orchestral recitative and cutting the usually long da capo aria . His later operas have half the length of a typical baroque opera . The strong influence of French opera encouraged Gluck to move to Paris in November 1773. Fusing

2511-646: The Conservatoire de Paris. After his death, Daussoigne-Méhul completed Méhul's unfinished opera Valentine de Milan which premiered at the Opéra-Comique in 1822. He also wrote new recitatives for his opera Stratonice in 1821 for a revival of that work in Paris. Méhul's most important contribution to music was his operas. He led the generation of composers who emerged in France in the 1790s, which included his friend and rival Luigi Cherubini and his outright enemy Jean-François Le Sueur . Méhul followed

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2592-609: The French ones have, without exception, taken Salieri at his word. His German biographer Max Arend objected that not a single letter written in Czech can be found, to which Jacques-Gabriel Prod'homme countered that "no letters written by Liszt in Hungarian were known either, but does this make him a German?" Hans Joachim Moser wanted a lyric work in Czech as proof. In fact, the music theorist Laurent Garcin, writing in 1770 (published 1772) before Gluck arrived in Paris, included Gluck in

2673-484: The Neapolitan composer Francesco Durante claimed that his fellow composers "should have been proud to have conceived and written [the aria]". Durante simultaneously declined to comment whether or not it was within the boundaries of the accepted compositional rules of the time. Gluck finally settled in Vienna, where he became Kapellmeister invited by Prince Joseph of Saxe-Hildburghausen . He wrote Le cinesi for

2754-511: The Opera (1755) proved to be an inspiration for Gluck's reforms. He advocated that opera seria had to return to basics and that all the various elements—music (both instrumental and vocal), ballet, and staging—must be subservient to the overriding drama. Several composers of the period, including Niccolò Jommelli and Tommaso Traetta , attempted to put these ideals into practice (and added more ballets). In Vienna, Gluck met like-minded figures in

2835-480: The Paris public. For that purpose, she asked him to compose a new opera, Iphigénie en Aulide . "Mindful of the Querelle des Bouffons between adherents of Italian and French opera, she asked the composer to set the libretto in French." To get to her goals she was assisted by the singers Rosalie Levasseur and Sophie Arnould . Gluck had gruff ways, demanding strict adherence from the cast when rehearsing. Gluck told

2916-730: The Prague Carnival of 1750 Gluck composed a new opera, Ezio (again set to one of Metastasio's works, with the manuscript located at the Lobkowicz Palace ). His Ipermestra was also performed in the same year. The other major event of Gluck's stay in Prague was, on 15 September 1750, his marriage to Maria Anna Bergin, aged 18 years old, the daughter of a rich (but long-dead) Viennese merchant. Gluck seems to have spent most of 1751 commuting between Prague and Vienna. The year 1752 brought another major commission to Gluck, when he

2997-467: The bass-bariton Henri Larrivée to change his ways. The soprano Arnould was replaced. He insisted that the chorus, too, had to act and become a part of the drama – that they could no longer just stand there posing stiffly and without expression while singing their lines. Gluck was assisted by François-Joseph Gossec , director of the Concert Spirituel . The Chevalier de Saint-Georges attended

3078-401: The beaten track”, important enough to give it almost in its entirety: "It was my intention to confine music to its true dramatic province, of assisting poetical expression, and of augmenting the interest of the fable; without interrupting the action, or chilling it with useless and superfluous ornaments; for the office of music, when joined to poetry, seemed to me, to resemble that of colouring in

3159-538: The central part of western Bohemia (about 70 km southwest of Prague and 16 km east of Pilsen ). The family name Gluck (also spelled Gluckh, Klugh, Kluch, etc.) likely comes from the Czech word for boy ( kluk ). In its various spellings, it is repeatedly found in the records of Rokycany. Around 1675 Hans Adam moved to Neustadt an der Waldnaab in the service of Prince Ferdinand August von Lobkowitz , who possessed extensive landholdings in Bohemia as well as

3240-603: The choice of deep or high registers for the voices or instruments, a quick or slow tempo, and the several degrees of volume in the sound emitted. One way in which Méhul increased dramatic expressivity was to experiment with orchestration. For example, in Uthal , an opera set in the Highlands of Scotland , he eliminated violins from the orchestra, replacing them with the darker sounds of violas in order to add local colour. Méhul's La chasse du jeune Henri (Young Henri's Hunt) provides

3321-718: The company of the violinist Ferdinand Philipp Joseph von Lobkowitz, the son of Phillip Hyacinth. The timing was unfortunate, as the Jacobite Rebellion had caused much panic in London, and for most of the year, the King's Theatre was closed. Six trio sonatas were the immediate fruits of his time. Gluck's two London operas ( La caduta de' giganti and Artamene ), eventually performed in 1746, borrowed much from his earlier works. Gluck performed works by Galuppi and Lampugnani , who both had worked in London. A more long-term benefit

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3402-574: The county of Störnstein - Neustadt in the Upper Palatinate. Gluck's father, Alexander, was born in Neustadt an der Waldnaab on 28 October 1683, one of four sons of Hans Adam Gluck who became foresters or gamekeepers. Alexander served in a contingent of about 50 soldiers under Philipp Hyazinth von Lobkowitz, the son of Ferdinand August von Lobkowitz, during the War of Spanish Succession , and, according to Gluck family tradition, rose to

3483-482: The decade and a highpoint of Revolutionary opera". It deals with the same tale of passion and jealousy as Handel's 1735 opera Ariodante . As in many of his other operas, Mehul makes use of a structural device called the "reminiscence motif", a musical theme associated with a particular character or idea in the opera. This device looks forward to the leitmotifs in Richard Wagner 's music dramas. In Ariodant ,

3564-468: The example of the operas which Gluck had written for Paris in the 1770s and applied Gluck's "reforms" to opéra comique (a genre which mixed music with spoken dialogue and was not necessarily at all "comic" in mood). But he pushed music in a more Romantic direction, showing an increased use of dissonance and an interest in psychological states such as anger and jealousy, thus foreshadowing later Romantic composers such as Weber and Berlioz . Indeed, Méhul

3645-481: The first performance on 19 April; Jean-Jacques Rousseau was delighted with Gluck melodic style. Marie Antoinette received a large share of the credit. Gluck had long pondered the fundamental problem of form and content in opera. He thought both of the main Italian operatic genres, opera buffa and opera seria , had strayed too far from what opera should really be and seemed unnatural. Opera buffa had long lost its original freshness. Its jokes were threadbare and

3726-469: The future French King Louis XVI in 1770, Gluck signed a contract for six stage works with the management of the Paris Opéra. He began with Iphigénie en Aulide . The premiere on 19 April 1774 sparked a huge controversy, almost a war, such as had not been seen in the city since the Querelle des Bouffons . Gluck's opponents brought the leading Italian composer Niccolò Piccinni to Paris to demonstrate

3807-411: The groundbreaking ballet-pantomime Don Juan in collaboration with the choreographer Gasparo Angiolini ; the more radical Jean-Georges Noverre was involved for the first time? The climax of Gluck's opéra comique writing was La rencontre imprévue (1764). By that time, Gluck created musical drama, based on Greek tragedy , with more compassion, influencing the latest style Sturm und Drang . Under

3888-537: The instruments". Apparently, this relationship lasted for several years. Sammartini was not, primarily, a composer of opera, his main output being of sacred music and symphonies, but Milan boasted a vibrant opera scene, and Gluck soon formed an association with one of the city's up-and-coming opera houses, the Teatro Regio Ducale . There his first opera Artaserse was performed on 26 December 1741, dedicated to Otto Ferdinand von Abensberg und Traun . Set to

3969-506: The level of gunbearer to the great general of the imperial forces, Eugene of Savoy . In 1711 Alexander settled outside Berching as a forester and hunter in the service of the monastery Seligenporten, Plankstetten Abbey , and the mayors of Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz . He took the vacant position of hunter in Erasbach in 1711 or 1712 (his predecessor had been found shot in the forest). About Gluck's mother, Maria Walburga, almost nothing

4050-424: The name Willibald is frequently found in the baptismal register, often as a second name. No documents contemporary with Gluck's life use the name Willibald. Only in the 19th century did scholars begin using it to distinguish the composer from his father's brother Johann Christoph, born in 1700, whose baptism had earlier been confused with that of the composer. In the year of Gluck's birth, the Treaty of Rastatt and

4131-563: The operatic world: Count Giacomo Durazzo , the head of the court theatre, and one of the primary instigators of operatic reform in Vienna ;; the librettist Ranieri de' Calzabigi , who wanted to attack the dominance of Metastasian opera seria; the innovative choreographer Gasparo Angiolini ; and the London-trained castrato Gaetano Guadagni . The first result of the new thinking was Gluck's reformist ballet Don Juan , but

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4212-514: The poet Klopstock in Karlsruhe. On 23 April 1776, the French version of Alceste was given. During the rehearsals for Echo et Narcisse in September 1779, Gluck became dangerously ill. Since the opera itself was a failure, running for only 12 performances, Gluck decided to return to Vienna within two weeks. In that city Die unvermuthete Zusammenkunft or Die Pilgrime von Mekka (1772),

4293-438: The poor reception of his Echo et Narcisse (1779), he left Paris in disgust and returned to Vienna to live out the remainder of his life. Gluck's earliest known ancestor is his great-grandfather, Simon Gluckh von Rockenzahn, whose name is recorded in the marriage contract (1672) of his son, the forester Johann (Hans) Adam Gluck (c. 1649–1722) and grandfather of Christoph. 'Rockenzahn' is believed to be Rokycany , located in

4374-491: The presence of the French ambassador Emmanuel Marie Louis de Noailles . This has long been the commonly accepted date. He was baptized Christophorus Willibaldus on 4 July 1714 in the village of Weidenwang, a parish that at that time also included Erasbach. Gluck himself never used the name Willibald. The church in Weidenwang was consecrated to Saint Willibald (as was the entire Eichstätt diocese to which it belonged), and

4455-466: The public gradually to think that a Frenchman may follow Haydn and Mozart at a distance." A fifth symphony was never completed—"as disillusionment and tuberculosis took their toll", in the words of David Charlton. The Symphonies Nos. 3 and 4 were only rediscovered by Charlton in 1979. Interviewed 8 November 2010 on the BBC Radio 4 's Today programme, Professor Charlton said that Méhul's 4th Symphony

4536-406: The reminiscence motif is the cri de fureur ("cry of fury"), expressing the emotion of jealousy. Around 1800, the popularity of such stormy dramas began to wane, replaced by a fashion for the lighter opéra comiques of composers such as François-Adrien Boieldieu . In addition, Mehul's friend Napoleon told him he preferred a more comic style of opera. As a Corsican , Napoleon's cultural background

4617-555: The repetition of the same characters made them seem no more than stereotypes. In opera seria , the singing was devoted to superficial effects and the content was uninteresting and fossilised. As in opera buffa , the singers were effectively absolute masters of the stage and the music, decorating the vocal lines so floridly that audiences could no longer recognise the original melody. Gluck wanted to return opera to its origins, focusing on human drama and passions and making words and music of equal importance. Francesco Algarotti 's Essay on

4698-544: The sacrifice, the composer should not hesitate as between a pretty musical effect that is foreign to the scenic or dramatic character, and a series of accents that are true but do not yield any surface pleasure. He was convinced that musical expressiveness is a lovely flower, delicate and rare, of exquisite fragrance, which does not bloom without culture, and which a breath can wither; that it does not dwell in melody alone, but that everything concurs either to create or destroy it – melody, harmony, modulation, rhythm, instrumentation,

4779-484: The same year. Taking inspiration from the more anguished works of Haydn and Mozart , such as Haydn's Sturm und Drang and later Paris Symphonies of 1785–86 and Mozart 's Symphony No. 40 (K. 550, 1788), it was revived in one of Felix Mendelssohn 's concerts with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in 1838 and 1846 to an audience including Robert Schumann , who was impressed by the piece. (At

4860-730: The standard repertory, showed the beginnings of Gluck's reforms. His idea was to make the drama of the work more important than the star singers who performed it, and to do away with dry recitative (recitativo secco, accompanied only by continuo ) that broke up the action. In 1765, Melchior Grimm published "Poème lyrique" , an influential article for the Encyclopédie on lyric and opera librettos . Gluck and Calzabigi followed Orfeo with Alceste (1767) and Paride ed Elena (1770), dedicated to his friend João Carlos de Bragança (Duke de Lafões) , an expert on music and mythology, pushing their innovations even further. Calzabigi wrote

4941-419: The superiority of Neapolitan opera , and the "whole town" engaged in an argument between "Gluckists" and "Piccinnists". The composers themselves took no part in the polemics, but when Piccinni was asked to set the libretto to Roland , on which Gluck was also known to be working, Gluck destroyed everything he had written for that opera up to that point. On 2 August 1774 the French version of Orfeo ed Euridice

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5022-510: The teaching of Gluck, Marie Antoinette developed into a good musician. She learned to play the harp , the harpsichord and the flute . She sang during the family's evening gatherings, as she had a beautiful voice. All her brothers and sisters were involved in playing Gluck's music; on 24 January 1765 her brother Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor directed one of Gluck's compositions, Il Parnaso confuso . In Spring 1774, she took under her patronage her former music teacher and introduced him to

5103-448: The time of writing, only Beethoven's Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2 [1799/1800 and 1802] had been performed in France.) His other symphonies also followed German and Austrian models. Commenting after the premiere of his first symphony, he noted: "I understood all the dangers of my enterprise; I foresaw the cautious welcome that the music-lovers would give my symphonies. I plan to write new ones for next winter and shall try to write them… to accustom

5184-423: The tiniest villages the peasants sing and play different instruments during High Mass in their churches. As I was passionate about the art, I made rapid progress. I played several instruments and the schoolmaster, singling me out from the other pupils, gave me lessons at his house when he was off duty. I no longer thought and dreamt of anything but music; the art of forestry was neglected. In 1727 or 1728, when Gluck

5265-557: The title Alonzo et Cora , into rehearsal in June 1789. However, the rehearsals were abandoned on 8 August, probably because the Opéra had been suffering severe financial difficulties throughout the 1780s, and the opera was not premiered until 1791. In the meantime, Méhul found an ideal collaborator in the librettist François-Benoît Hoffman , who provided the words to the first of Méhul's operas to be performed, Euphrosine . Its premiere in 1790

5346-403: The title role. On this occasion Gluck's music was completely original, but the displeasure of the court poet, Metastasio, who called the opera " archvandalian music", probably explains why Gluck did not remain long in Vienna despite the work's enormous popular success (it was performed 27 times to great acclaim). For the remainder of 1748 and 1749 Gluck travelled with Mingotti's troupe, contracting

5427-475: The traditions of Italian opera and the French (with rich chorus) into a unique synthesis, Gluck wrote eight operas for the Parisian stage. Iphigénie en Tauride (1779) was a great success and is often considered to be his finest work. Though he was extremely popular and widely credited with bringing about a revolution in French opera, Gluck's mastery of the Parisian operatic scene was never absolute, and after

5508-535: The transition to the Bourbon Restoration intact. However, the composer was now seriously ill with tuberculosis and he died on 18 October 1817. His grave is at Père Lachaise Cemetery , near the grave of the composer François Joseph Gossec . In 1797 Méhul adopted his seven-year-old nephew, composer Joseph Daussoigne-Méhul , and Joseph's younger brother. He played a major role in his nephew's musical education and career; counting him among his pupils at

5589-563: Was Czech , expressed himself in German only with effort, and still more so in French and Italian." Salieri also mentions that Gluck mixed several languages when speaking: German, Italian and French, like Salieri himself. Gluck's first biographer, Anton Franz Schmid  [ de ] , wrote that Gluck grew up in a German-speaking area, and that Gluck learned to speak Czech, but did not need it in Prague and in his later life. Heartz writes: "More devious manoeuvres have been attempted by Gluck's German biographers of this [the 20th] century, while

5670-517: Was 13 or 14, he went to Prague . A childhood flight from home to Vienna is included in several contemporary accounts of Gluck's life, including Mannlich's, but some scholars have cast doubt on Gluck's picturesque tales of earning food and shelter by his singing as he travelled. Most now feel it is more likely that the object of Gluck's travels was not Vienna but Prague. Gluck's German biographer Hans Joachim Moser claimed in 1940 to have found documents showing Gluck matriculated in logic and mathematics at

5751-488: Was Italian, and he loved the opera buffa of composers like Paisiello and Cimarosa . Méhul responded with L'irato ("The Angry Man"), a one-act comedy premiered as the work of the Italian composer "Fiorelli" in 1801. When it became an immediate success, Méhul revealed the hoax he had played. Méhul also continued to compose works in a more serious vein. Joseph , based on the Biblical story of Joseph and his brothers,

5832-596: Was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period . Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia , both at the time part of the Holy Roman Empire , he gained prominence at the Habsburg court at Vienna. There he brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices for which many intellectuals had been campaigning. With a series of radical new works in

5913-481: Was an immense success and marked the composer out as a new talent. It was also the start of his long relationship with the Comédie Italienne theatre (soon to be renamed the Opéra-Comique ). In spite of the failure of Cora in 1791 and the banning of Adrien for political reasons the year after that, Méhul consolidated his reputation with works such as Stratonice and Mélidore et Phrosine . During

5994-507: Was announced as a collaboration between the two composers; however, after the overwhelming success of its premiere on 26 April 1784, Gluck revealed to the prestigious Journal de Paris that the work was wholly Salieri's. In Vienna Gluck wrote a few more minor works, spending the summer with his wife in Perchtoldsdorf , famous for its wine ( Heuriger ). Gluck suffered from melancholy and high blood pressure. In 1781, he brought out

6075-624: Was asked to set Metastasio's La clemenza di Tito (the specific libretto was the composer's choice) for the name day celebrations of King Charles VII of Naples . The opera was performed on 4 November at the Teatro di San Carlo , and the world-famous castrato Caffarelli took the role of Sextus. For Caffarelli Gluck composed the famous, but notoriously difficult, aria "Se mai senti spirarti sul volto", which provoked admiration and vituperation in equally large measures. Gluck later reworked this aria for his Iphigénie en Tauride. According to one account,

6156-595: Was cited for poor performance and warned he might be terminated. He sold his house in August 1717 and voluntarily left Erasbach near the end of September to take up employment as head forester in Reichstadt , serving the Duchess of Tuscany, the wealthy Anna Maria Franziska of Saxe-Lauenburg , since 1708 separated from her husband Gian Gastone de' Medici , the last duke of Tuscany. On 1 April 1722 Alexander Gluck took

6237-490: Was exposure to the music of Handel – whom he later credited as a great influence on his style – and the naturalistic acting style of David Garrick , an English theatrical reformer. On 25 March, shortly after the production of Artamene , Handel and Gluck together gave a concert in the Haymarket Theatre consisting of works by Gluck and an organ concerto by Handel, played by the composer. On 14 April Gluck played on

6318-636: Was likely to have been reasonably favorable. He also wrote operas for other cities of Northern Italy in between Carnival seasons, including Turin and Venice, where his Ipermestra was given during November 1744 at the Teatro San Giovanni Crisostomo . Nearly all of his operas in this period were set to Metastasio's texts, despite the poet's dislike for his style of composition. In 1745 Gluck accepted an invitation from Lord Middlesex to become house composer at London's King's Theatre , probably travelling to England via Frankfurt and in

6399-472: Was performed, more Rameau -like, with the title role transposed from the castrato to the tenor voice. This time Gluck's work was better received by the Parisian public. In the same year, Gluck returned to Vienna, where he was appointed composer to the imperial court (18 October 1774) after 20 years serving as Kapellmeister . Over the next few years, the now internationally famous composer would travel back and forth between Paris and Vienna. He became friends with

6480-451: Was the first composer to be styled a Romantic; a critic used the term in La chronique de Paris on 1 April 1793 when reviewing Méhul's Le jeune sage et le vieux fou . Méhul's main musical concern was that everything should serve to increase the dramatic impact. As his admirer Berlioz wrote: [Méhul] was fully convinced that in truly dramatic music, when the importance of the situation deserves

6561-625: Was the first ever to employ the cyclical principle . [REDACTED] Category Givet Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.236 via cp1112 cp1112, Varnish XID 949926269 Upstream caches: cp1112 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 08:50:09 GMT Gluck Christoph Willibald ( Ritter von ) Gluck ( German: [ˈkʁɪstɔf ˈvɪlɪbalt ˈɡlʊk] ; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787)

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