Where and in what conditions the glitch was born. Gluck Christoph Willibald - Biography

“Before starting work, I try to forget that I am a musician,” said the composer Christoph Willibald Gluck, and these words best characterize his reformist approach to composing operas. Gluck “pulled out” the opera from the power of court aesthetics. He gave it the grandeur of ideas, psychological truthfulness, depth and strength of passions.

Christoph Willibald Gluck was born on July 2, 1714 in Erasbach, in the Austrian state of Falz. In early childhood, he often moved from one place to another, depending on which of the noble estates his forester father served. From 1717 he lived in the Czech Republic. He received the rudiments of musical knowledge at the Jesuit college in Komotau. After graduating from it in 1731, Gluck began to study philosophy at the University of Prague and study music with Boguslav Matej Chernogorsky. Unfortunately, Gluck, who lived in the Czech Republic until the age of twenty-two, did not receive the same strong professional education in his homeland as his colleagues in Central Europe.

The insufficiency of schooling was compensated by the strength and freedom of thought that allowed Gluck to turn to the new and relevant, lying outside the legal norms.

In 1735, Gluck became a house musician in the palace of the princes Lobkowitz in Vienna. Gluck's first stay in Vienna turned out to be short-lived: at one of the evenings in the salon of the princes Lobkowitz, the Italian aristocrat and philanthropist A.M. met the young musician. Melzi. Fascinated by Gluck's art, he invited him to his home chapel in Milan.

In 1737 Gluck took up his new position in the Melzi household. During the four years he lived in Italy, he became close to the greatest Milanese composer and organist Giovanni Battista Sammartini, becoming his student and later a close friend. The guidance of the Italian maestro helped Gluck complete his musical education. However, he became an opera composer mainly due to his innate instinct as a musical playwright and the gift of keen observation. On December 26, 1741, the Reggio Ducal court theater in Milan opened the new season with the opera Artaxerxes by the hitherto unknown Christoph Willibald Gluck. He was in his twenty-eighth year - the age at which other composers of the 18th century managed to achieve pan-European fame.

For his first opera, Gluck chose the libretto Metastasio, which inspired many composers of the 18th century. Gluck specially added the aria in the traditional Italian manner in order to emphasize the dignity of his music to the audience. The premiere was a great success. The choice of the libretto fell on "Demetrius" by Metastasio, renamed after the name of the main character in "Kleoniche".

Gluck's fame is growing rapidly. The Milan theater is once again eager to open its winter season with its opera. Gluck composes music on Metastasio's libretto "Demofont". This opera was such a great success in Milan that it was soon staged also in Reggio and Bologna. Then, Gluck's new operas are staged one after another in the cities of northern Italy: Tigran in Cremona, Sofonisba and Hippolytus in Milan, Hypermnestra in Venice, Por in Turin.

In November 1745, Gluck appeared in London, accompanying his former patron, Prince F.F. Lobkowitz. For lack of time, the composer prepared "pasticcio", that is, he composed the opera from previously composed music. Held in 1746, the premiere of two of his operas - "The Fall of the Giants" and "Artamen" - was held without much success.

In 1748, Gluck received an order for an opera for the court theater in Vienna. Furnished with magnificent splendor, the premiere of "Recognized Semiramide" in the spring of that year brought the composer a truly great success, which became the beginning of his triumphs at the Vienna court.

The further activity of the composer is connected with the troupe of G. B. Locatelli, who commissioned him the opera Aezio to be performed at the carnival celebrations of 1750 in Prague.

The luck that accompanied the Prague production of Aezio brought Gluck a new opera contract with the Locatelli troupe. It seemed that from now on the composer is more and more closely linking his fate with Prague. However, at that time an event occurred that dramatically changed his former way of life: on September 15, 1750, he married Marianne Pergin, the daughter of a wealthy Viennese merchant. Gluck first met his future life partner back in 1748, when he was working in Vienna on "Recognized Semiramide". Despite the significant difference in age, a sincere deep feeling arose between the 34-year-old Gluck and the 16-year-old girl. Marianne inherited from her father a solid fortune made Gluck financially independent and allowed him to devote himself entirely to creativity in the future. Having finally settled in Vienna, he leaves it only to attend numerous premieres of his operas in other European cities. On all trips, the composer is invariably accompanied by his wife, who surrounded him with attention and care.

In the summer of 1752, Gluck received a new order from the director of the famous San Carlo Theater in Naples, one of the best in Italy. He writes the opera "Tito's Mercy", which brought him great success.

After the triumphant performance of Titus in Naples, Gluck returns to Vienna as a generally recognized master of the Italian opera seria. Meanwhile, the fame of the popular aria reached the capital of the Austrian Empire, arousing interest in its creator from Prince Joseph von Hildburghausen, a field marshal and musical patron. He invited Gluck to lead, as "accompanist", musical "academies" held weekly in his palace. Under the direction of Gluck, these concerts soon became one of the most interesting events in the musical life of Vienna; outstanding vocalists and instrumentalists performed at them.

In 1756, Gluck went to Rome to fulfill the order of the famous Argentine theater; he was to write the music for Metastasio's Antigone libretto. At that time, a performance in front of the Roman public was a serious test for any opera composer.

Antigone was a great success in Rome, and Gluck was awarded the Order of the Golden Spur. This order, ancient in its origin, was awarded for the purpose of encouraging outstanding representatives of science and art.

In the middle of the 18th century, the art of virtuoso singers reaches its peak, and the opera becomes exclusively a place for demonstrating the art of singing. Because of this, to a large extent, the connection between music and the drama itself was lost, which was characteristic of antiquity.

Gluck was already about fifty years old. A favorite of the public, awarded an honorary order, the author of many operas written in a purely traditional decorative style, he seemed unable to open new horizons in music. Intensively working thought did not break through to the surface for a long time, almost did not reflect on the character of his elegant, aristocratically cold creativity. And suddenly, at the turn of the 1760s, deviations from the conventional operatic style appeared in his works.

First, in an opera dating back to 1755 - "Justified Innocence" - there is a departure from the principles that dominated the Italian opera seria. It is followed by the ballet "Don Juan" on the plot of Molière (1761) - another harbinger of the operatic reform.

It wasn't an accident. The composer was remarkable for his amazing susceptibility to the latest trends of our time, his readiness for creative processing of a wide variety of artistic impressions.

As soon as he heard Handel's oratorios, which had just been created and were not yet known in continental Europe, in his younger years, their sublime heroic pathos and monumental "fresco" composition became an organic element of his own dramatic concepts. Along with the influences of Handel's lush "baroque" music, Gluck adopted from the musical life of London the endearing simplicity and seeming naivety of English folk ballads.

It was enough for his librettist and co-author of the Calzabidgi reform to draw Gluck's attention to the French lyrical tragedy, as he instantly became interested in its theatrical and poetic merits. The appearance of the French comic opera at the Vienna court was also reflected in the images of his future musical dramas: they descended from the stilted height cultivated in the opera seria under the influence of Metastasio's "reference" librettos, and became close to the real characters of the folk theater. The advanced literary youth, thinking about the fate of modern drama, easily involved Gluck in the circle of their creative interests, which forced him to take a critical look at the established conventions of the opera theater. Many similar examples, speaking of Gluck's acute creative susceptibility to the latest trends of modernity, could be cited. Gluck realized that music, plot development and theatrical performance should be the main ones in the opera, and not at all artistic singing with coloratura and technical excesses, subject to a single template.

The opera "Orpheus and Eurydice" was the first work in which Gluck implemented new ideas. Its premiere in Vienna on October 5, 1762 marked the beginning of the opera reform. Gluck wrote the recitative in such a way that the meaning of the words was in the first place, the part of the orchestra obeyed the general mood of the stage, and the singing static figures finally began to play, showed artistic qualities, and the singing would be combined with the action. The singing technique has become much simpler, but it has become more natural and much more attractive to the listeners. The overture in the opera also contributed to the introduction to the atmosphere and mood of the subsequent act. In addition, Gluck turned the chorus into a direct component of the flow of the drama. The wonderful originality of "Orpheus and Eurydice" in its "Italian" musicality. The dramatic structure here is based on complete musical numbers, which, like the arias of the Italian school, captivate with their melodic beauty and completeness.

Following Orpheus and Eurydice, Gluck five years later completes Alcesta (libretto by R. Calzabidgi after Euripides) - a drama of majestic and strong passions. The civic theme here is carried consistently through the conflict between social necessity and personal passions. Her drama is concentrated around two emotional states - "fear and sorrow" (Rousseau). There is something oratorical in the theatrical and narrative static character of Alceste, in a certain generalization, in the severity of its images. But at the same time there is a conscious desire to free oneself from the dominance of completed musical numbers and follow the poetic text.

In 1774, Gluck moved to Paris, where, in an atmosphere of pre-revolutionary enthusiasm, his operatic reform was completed and, under the undeniable influence of French theatrical culture, a new opera, Iphigenia en Aulis (according to Racine), was born. This is the first of three operas created by the composer for Paris. In contrast to Alcesta, the theme of civil heroism is built here with theatrical versatility. The main dramatic situation is enriched with a lyrical line, genre motifs, lush decorative scenes.

High tragic pathos is combined with everyday elements. Noteworthy in the musical structure are individual moments of dramatic climaxes, which stand out against the background of more "impersonal" material. "This is Racine's Iphigenia, remade into an opera," the Parisians themselves spoke of Gluck's first French opera.

In the next opera, Armide, written in 1779 (libretto by F. Kino), Gluck, in his own words, "tried to be ... rather a poet, painter than a musician." Turning to the libretto of the famous opera by Lully, he wanted to revive the techniques of the French court opera on the basis of the latest, developed musical language, new principles of orchestral expressiveness and the achievements of his own reformist dramaturgy. The heroic beginning in "Armida" is intertwined with fantastic paintings.

“I wait with horror, no matter how they decide to compare Armida and Alcesta,” Gluck wrote, “... one should cause a tear, and the other should give sensual experiences.”

And, finally, the most amazing "Iphigenia in Tauris", composed in the same 1779 (according to Euripides)! The conflict between feeling and duty is expressed in it in psychological terms. Pictures of spiritual confusion, suffering, brought to paroxysms, form the central moment of the opera. The picture of a thunderstorm - a characteristically French touch - is embodied in the introduction by symphonic means with an unprecedented acuteness of foreboding tragedy.

Like the nine inimitable symphonies that "form" into a single concept of Beethoven's symphonism, these five operatic masterpieces, so related to each other and at the same time so individual, form a new style in the musical dramaturgy of the 18th century, which went down in history under the name of Gluck's opera reform.

In Gluck's majestic tragedies, which reveal the depth of human spiritual conflicts and raise civic issues, a new idea of ​​musical beauty was born. If in the old court opera of France "they preferred ... wit to feeling, gallantry to passions, and the grace and color of versification to the pathos required ... by the situation", then in Gluck's drama high passions and sharp dramatic clashes destroyed the ideal orderliness and exaggerated elegance of the court opera style .

Each deviation from the expected and customary, each violation of standardized beauty, Gluck argued with a deep analysis of the movements of the human soul. In such episodes, those bold musical techniques were born that anticipated the art of the "psychological" XIX century. It is no coincidence that in an era when tens and hundreds of operas in a conventional style were written by individual composers, Gluck created only five reformist masterpieces over a quarter of a century. But each of them is unique in its dramatic appearance, each sparkles with individual musical finds.

Gluck's progressive efforts were not introduced into practice so easily and smoothly. The history of operatic art even included such a concept as the war of picchinists - supporters of old operatic traditions - and gluckists, who, on the contrary, saw the realization of their long-standing dream of a genuine musical drama gravitating towards antiquity in the new operatic style.

Adherents of the old, "purists and aesthetes" (as Gluck branded them), were repelled in his music by the "lack of refinement and nobility." They reproached him for “loss of taste”, pointed to the “barbaric and extravagant” nature of his art, to “cries of physical pain”, “convulsive sobs”, “screams of sorrow and despair”, which replaced the charm of a smooth, balanced melody.

Today these accusations seem ridiculous and baseless. Judging from Gluck's innovation with historical detachment, one can be convinced that he surprisingly carefully preserved those artistic techniques that were developed in the opera house over the previous century and a half and formed the "golden fund" of his expressive means. In Gluck's musical language, there is an obvious continuity with the expressive and pleasing melody of Italian opera, with the elegant "ballet" instrumental style of French lyrical tragedy. But in his eyes, "music's true purpose" was "to give poetry more new expressive power". Therefore, striving to embody the dramatic idea of ​​the libretto in musical sounds with maximum completeness and truthfulness (and Calzabidgi's poetic texts were saturated with genuine drama), the composer persistently rejected all decorative and cliché techniques that contradicted this. “In the wrong place, beauty not only loses most of its effect, but also harms, leading astray the listener who is not already in the position necessary to follow the dramatic development with interest,” Gluck said.

And the composer's new expressive techniques really destroyed the conditional typed "beautifulness" of the old style, but at the same time expanded the dramatic possibilities of music to the maximum.

It was Gluck who appeared in the vocal parts with speech, declamatory intonations that contradicted the “sweet” smooth melody of the old opera, but truthfully reflecting the life of the stage image. The closed static performances of the "concert in costumes" style, separated by dry recitatives, disappeared forever from his operas. Their place was taken by a new close-up composition, built according to the scenes, contributing to the through musical development and emphasizing the musical and dramatic climaxes. The orchestral part, doomed to a miserable role in the Italian opera, began to participate in the development of the image, and in Gluck's orchestral scores, hitherto unknown dramatic possibilities of instrumental sounds were revealed.

“Music, music itself, has passed into action...” Gretry wrote about Gluck's opera. Indeed, for the first time in the century-long history of the opera house, the idea of ​​drama was embodied in music with such fullness and artistic perfection. The astonishing simplicity that determined the appearance of every thought expressed by Gluck also turned out to be incompatible with the old aesthetic criteria.

Far beyond this school, in the opera and instrumental music of various European countries, aesthetic ideals, dramatic principles, and forms of musical expression developed by Gluck were introduced. Outside of the Gluckian reform, not only the operatic, but also the chamber-symphonic work of the late Mozart, and, to a certain extent, the oratorio art of the late Haydn would not have matured. Between Gluck and Beethoven, the continuity is so natural, so obvious that it seems as if the musician of the older generation bequeathed to the great symphonist to continue the work he had begun.

Gluck spent the last years of his life in Vienna, where he returned in 1779. The composer died on November 15, 1787 in Vienna. The ashes of Gluck, initially buried in one of the surrounding cemeteries, were subsequently transferred to the central city cemetery, where all the outstanding representatives of the musical culture of Vienna are buried.

1. five more, please...

Gluck dreamed of making his debut with his opera at the English Royal Academy of Music, formerly known as the Grand Opera House. The composer sent the score of the opera "Iphigenia in Aulis" to the directorate of the theatre. The director was frankly frightened by this unusual - unlike anything - work and decided to play it safe by writing the following answer to Gluck: "If Mr. Gluck undertakes to present at least six equally magnificent operas, I will be the first to contribute to the presentation of Iphigenia. Without this, no, for this opera transcends and destroys all that has existed before."

2. a little bit wrong

Some fairly wealthy and distinguished dilettante, out of boredom, decided to take up music and, for a start, composed an opera ... Gluck, to whom he gave it for judgment, returning the manuscript, said with a sigh:
- You know, my dear, your opera is quite nice, but ...
Do you think she's missing something?
- Perhaps.
- What?
- I suppose poverty.

3. easy exit

Passing somehow past a store, Gluck slipped and broke the window glass. He asked the owner of the store how much the glass cost, and learning that it was one and a half francs, he gave him a coin of three francs. But the owner did not have change, and he already wanted to go to a neighbor to exchange money, but was stopped by Gluck.
"Don't waste your time," he said. “You don’t need to surrender, I’d rather break the glass for you one more time…”

4. "the main thing is that the suit fits ..."

At the rehearsal of Iphigenia in Aulis, Gluck drew attention to the unusually overweight, as they say, "non-stage" figure of the singer Larrivé, who performed the part of Agamemnon, and did not fail to notice this aloud.
“Patience, maestro,” said Larrivé, “you haven't seen me in a suit. I'm willing to bet anything that I'm unrecognizable in a suit.
At the very first rehearsal in costume, Gluck shouted from the stalls:
- Larriv! You bet! Unfortunately, I recognized you without difficulty!

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Biography

Christoph Willibald Gluck was born into the family of a forester, was passionate about music from childhood, and since his father did not want to see his eldest son as a musician, Gluck, after graduating from the Jesuit college in Kommotau, left home as a teenager. After long wanderings, he ended up in Prague in 1731 and entered the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Prague; at the same time he took lessons from the then-famous Czech composer Boguslav Chernogorsky, sang in the choir of the Church of St. Jacob, played the violin and cello in traveling ensembles.

Having received his education, Gluck went to Vienna in 1735 and was admitted to the chapel of Count Lobkowitz, and a little later he received an invitation from the Italian philanthropist A. Melzi to become a chamber musician of the court chapel in Milan. In Italy, the birthplace of opera, Gluck had the opportunity to get acquainted with the work of the greatest masters of this genre; at the same time, he studied composition under the guidance of Giovanni Sammartini, a composer not so much of an opera as of a symphony.

In Vienna, gradually becoming disillusioned with the traditional Italian opera seria - “opera aria”, in which the beauty of melody and singing acquired a self-sufficient character, and composers often became hostages to the whims of prima donnas, Gluck turned to French comic opera (“Merlin’s Island”, “ The Imaginary Slave, The Reformed Drunkard, The Fooled Cady, etc.) and even for the ballet: created in collaboration with the choreographer G. Angiolini, the pantomime ballet Don Giovanni (based on the play by J.-B. Molière), a real choreographic drama, became the first incarnation of Gluck's desire to turn the operatic stage into a dramatic one.

In search of musical drama

K. V. Gluck. Lithograph by F. E. Feller

In his quest, Gluck found support from the chief intendant of the opera, Count Durazzo, and his compatriot poet and playwright Ranieri de Calzabidgi, who wrote the libretto of Don Giovanni. The next step in the direction of musical drama was their new joint work - the opera Orpheus and Eurydice, in the first edition staged in Vienna on October 5, 1762. Under the pen of Calzabidgi, the ancient Greek myth turned into an ancient drama, in full accordance with the tastes of that time, however, neither in Vienna nor in other European cities, the opera was a success with the public.

By order of the court, Gluck continued to write operas in the traditional style, without parting, however, with his idea. A new and more perfect embodiment of his dream of a musical drama was the heroic opera Alceste, created in collaboration with Calzabidgi in 1767, presented in Vienna on December 26 of the same year in its first edition. Dedicating the opera to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, the future Emperor Leopold II, Gluck wrote in the preface to Alceste:

Such a fundamental subordination of music to a poetic text was revolutionary for that time; in an effort to overcome the number structure characteristic of the then opera seria, Gluck combined the episodes of the opera into large scenes, permeated with a single dramatic development, he tied the overture to the action of the opera, which at that time usually represented a separate concert number, increased the role of the choir and orchestra ... Neither "Alcesta" nor the third reformist opera to the libretto of Calzabidgi - "Paris and Elena" () did not find support from either the Viennese or the Italian public.

Gluck's duties as court composer also included teaching music to the young Archduke Marie Antoinette; having become the wife of the heir to the French throne in April 1770, Marie Antoinette invited Gluck to Paris. However, other circumstances influenced the composer's decision to move his activities to the capital of France to a much greater extent.

Glitch in Paris

In Paris, meanwhile, a struggle was going on around the opera, which became the second act of the struggle between the adherents of the Italian opera (“buffonists”) and the French (“anti-buffonists”) that had died down back in the 50s. This confrontation even split the royal family: the French king Louis XVI preferred the Italian opera, while his Austrian wife Marie Antoinette supported the national French. The split also struck the famous Encyclopedia: its editor, D'Alembert, was one of the leaders of the "Italian Party", and many of its authors, led by Voltaire and Rousseau, actively supported the French. The stranger Gluck very soon became the banner of the "French party", and since the Italian troupe in Paris at the end of 1776 was headed by the famous and popular composer of those years Niccolò Piccini, the third act of this musical and public controversy went down in history as a struggle between the "gluckists" and " picchinists." The debate was not about styles, but about what an opera performance should be - just an opera, a luxurious spectacle with beautiful music and beautiful vocals, or something substantially more.

In the early 1970s Gluck's reformist operas were unknown in Paris; in August 1772, the attache of the French embassy in Vienna, François le Blanc du Roullet, brought them to the attention of the public in the pages of the Parisian magazine Mercure de France. The paths of Gluck and Calzabidgi diverged: with the reorientation to Paris, du Roullet became the main librettist of the reformer; in collaboration with him, the opera Iphigenia in Aulis (based on the tragedy by J. Racine), staged in Paris on April 19, 1774, was written for the French public. The success was consolidated by the new, French edition of Orpheus and Eurydice.

Recognition in Paris did not go unnoticed in Vienna: on October 18, 1774, Gluck was awarded the title of "actual imperial and royal court composer" with an annual salary of 2,000 guilders. Thanking for the honor, Gluck returned to France, where at the beginning of 1775 a new edition of his comic opera The Enchanted Tree, or the Deceived Guardian (written back in 1759) was staged, and in April, at the Grand Opera, a new edition "Alceste".

The Parisian period is considered by music historians to be the most significant in Gluck's work; the struggle between the “glukists” and the “picchinists”, which inevitably turned into personal rivalry between the composers (which, according to contemporaries, did not affect their relationship), went on with varying success; by the mid-70s, the “French Party” also split into adherents of traditional French opera (J. B. Lully and J. F. Rameau), on the one hand, and Gluck’s new French opera, on the other. Willingly or unwittingly, Gluck himself challenged the traditionalists, using for his heroic opera Armida a libretto written by F. Kino (based on the poem Jerusalem Liberated by T. Tasso) for the eponymous opera by Lully. "Armida", which premiered at the Grand Opera on September 23, 1777, was apparently perceived so differently by representatives of various "parties" that even 200 years later, some spoke of "tremendous success", others - about " failure."

Nevertheless, this struggle ended with the victory of Gluck, when on May 18, 1779, his opera “Iphigenia in Taurida” (libretto by N. Gniyar and L. du Roullet based on the tragedy of Euripides) was presented at the Paris Grand Opera, which to this day many is considered the composer's best opera. Niccolo Piccinni himself acknowledged Gluck's "musical revolution". At the same time, J. A. Houdon sculpted a white marble bust of Gluck, later installed in the lobby of the Royal Academy of Music between the busts of Rameau and Lully.

Last years

On September 24, 1779, the premiere of Gluck's last opera, Echo and Narcissus, took place in Paris; however, even earlier, in July, the composer was struck by a serious illness that turned into partial paralysis. In the autumn of the same year, Gluck returned to Vienna, which he never left again (a new attack of the disease occurred in June 1781).

Monument to K. V. Gluck in Vienna

During this period, the composer continued the work begun back in 1773 on odes and songs for voice and piano to the verses of F. G. Klopstock (Klopstocks Oden und Lieder beim Clavier zu singen in Musik gesetzt), dreamed of creating a German national opera based on the plot of Klopstock " Battle of Arminius", but these plans were not destined to come true. Anticipating his imminent departure, in 1782 Gluck wrote "De profundis" - a short work for a four-part choir and orchestra on the text of the 129th psalm, which was performed on November 17, 1787 at the composer's funeral by his student and follower Antonio Salieri.

Creation

Christoph Willibald Gluck was a predominantly operatic composer; he owns 107 operas, of which Orpheus and Eurydice (), Alceste (), Iphigenia in Aulis (), Armida (), Iphigenia in Tauris () still do not leave the stage. Individual fragments from his operas, which have long acquired an independent life on the concert stage, are even more popular: the Dance of the Shadows (aka Melody) and the Dance of the Furies from Orpheus and Eurydice, overtures to the operas Alceste and Iphigenia in Aulis and others.

Interest in the composer's work is growing, and over the past decades, the forgotten at one time "Paris and Elena" (, Vienna, libretto by Calzabigi), "Aetius", the comic opera "An Unforeseen Meeting" (, Vienna, libre. L. Dancourt) have been returned to listeners , the ballet "Don Juan" ... His "De profundis" is not forgotten either.

At the end of his life, Gluck said that "only the foreigner Salieri" adopted his manners from him, "because not a single German wanted to learn them"; nevertheless, Gluck's reforms found many followers in different countries, each of whom applied his principles in his own way in his own work - in addition to Antonio Salieri, this is primarily Luigi Cherubini, Gaspare Spontini and L. van Beethoven, and later - Hector Berlioz, who called Gluck "Aeschylus of music", and Richard Wagner, who half a century later faced on the opera stage with the same "costume concert" against which Gluck's reform was directed. In Russia, Mikhail Glinka was his admirer and follower. The influence of Gluck in many composers is also noticeable outside of operatic creativity; besides Beethoven and Berlioz, this also applies to Robert Schumann.

Gluck also wrote a number of works for orchestra - symphonies or overtures, a concerto for flute and orchestra (G-dur), 6 trio sonatas for 2 violins and a general bass, written back in the 40s. In collaboration with G. Angiolini, in addition to Don Giovanni, Gluck created three more ballets: Alexander (), as well as Semiramide () and The Chinese Orphan - both based on the tragedies of Voltaire.

In astronomy

The asteroids 514 Armida, discovered in 1903, and 579 Sidonia, discovered in 1905, are named after the characters in Gluck's opera Armida.

Notes

Literature

• Knights S. Christoph Willibald Gluck. - M.: Music, 1987.
• Kirillina L. Gluck's reformist operas. - M.: Classics-XXI, 2006. 384 p. ISBN 5-89817-152-5

Links

• Summary (synopsis) of the opera "Orpheus" on the site "100 operas"
• Gluck: sheet music of works at the International Music Score Library Project

Categories:

• Personalities in alphabetical order
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• July 2
• Born in 1714
• Bavaria born
• Deceased November 15
• Deceased in 1787
• Deceased in Vienna
• Knights of the Order of the Golden Spur
• Vienna Classical School
• Composers of Germany
• Composers of the classical era
• Composers of France
• opera composers
• Buried at Vienna Central Cemetery

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Christoph Willibald Gluck (German: Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck, July 2, 1714, Erasbach - November 15, 1787, Vienna) - Austrian composer, mainly opera, one of the largest representatives of musical classicism.

I. Chernyavsky (violin) and S. Kalinin (organ). Performance of a melody from the opera Orpheus and Eurydice (3.56), Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787). Kharkov House of Organ Music, 2008.

The name of Gluck is associated with the reform of the Italian opera seria and French lyrical tragedy in the second half of the 18th century, and if the works of Gluck the composer were not popular at all times, the ideas of Gluck the reformer determined the further development of the opera house.

Born into a forester's family...
Graduated from the Jesuit College ...
He entered the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Prague ...
He took lessons from the Czech composer Boguslav Chernogorsky, sang in the choir of the Church of St. Jacob, played the violin and cello in wandering ensembles ...
Wrote 107 operas...

German composer. The largest opera reformer, a representative of musical classicism. Author of 107 operas. Together with his like-minded poet and playwright Calzabidgi (author of the libretto for a number of Gluck's most important works), Gluck made an attempt to update the opera seria. On this path, Gluck met with fierce resistance from adherents of traditional Italian opera, led by Piccinni.
This artistic controversy has gone down in musical history as a "war of glitchists and picchinnists". The main essence of the reform is the subordination of all means of artistic expression to the dramatic idea, the desire for naturalness. Gluck deepened the role of the orchestra, developed musical scenes, and choirs. His achievements in the field of expression of human feelings cannot be overestimated. He abandoned the naked virtuosity of vocal parts in the name of the expressiveness of the musical image.
The following operas by Gluck are of the greatest reformist significance: Orpheus and Eurydice (1762), Alceste (1767), Paris and Helena (1770, Vienna, lib. Calzabidgi), Iphigenia in Aulis (1774), Armida "(1777)," Iphigenia in Tauris "(1779). Among Gluck's comic operas, An Unforeseen Meeting (1764, Vienna, lib. L. Dancourt) stands out, anticipating in many ways (including in its Eastern Turkish flavor) Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio.
France played an important role in Gluck's life. It was here that a number of his major works were staged, including the 2nd ed. opera "Orpheus and Eurydice" (1774, Paris).
In Russia, the composer's work has always aroused interest. His operas were repeatedly staged on the Russian stage. The production of the opera Orpheus and Eurydice in 1868 (Mariinsky Theater) was listened to by Berlioz, who gave an enthusiastic review of the performance. The production of the same opera at the Mariinsky Theater in 1911 (director Meyerhold, designer A. Golovin, conductor Napravnik, Sobinov performed the part of Orpheus) is recognized as historical. We also note the production of the opera Iphigenia in Aulis (1983, conductor Ermler) at the Bolshoi Theater.
The discography of Gluck's operas is quite extensive. The leading role in this area certainly belongs to the English conductor Gardiner, who recorded with the orchestra of the Lyon Opera and the Monteverdi Choir a number of the composer's most significant works.
E. Tsodokov

(1714-1787) German composer

Gluck is often called the reformer of the opera, which is true: after all, he created a new genre of musical tragedy and wrote monumental operatic works that were very different from what was created before him. Although formally referred to as a composer of the Viennese classical school, Gluck influenced the development of English, French and Italian musical art.

The composer came from a family of hereditary foresters who led a nomadic life, constantly moving from place to place. Gluck was born in the town of Erasbach, where at that time his father served on the estate of Prince Lobkowitz.

Gluck Sr. had no doubt that Christoph would follow in his footsteps, and was very upset when it turned out that the boy was more interested in music. In addition, he showed remarkable musical abilities. Soon he began to study singing, as well as playing the organ, piano and violin. These lessons were given to Gluck by the musician and composer B. Chernogorsky who worked on the estate. Since 1726, Christophe sang in the church choir of the Jesuit church in Komotaui while studying at the Jesuit school. Then, together with B. Chernogorsky, he went to Prague, where he continued his musical studies. The father never forgave his son for his betrayal and refused to help him, so Christophe had to earn a living on his own. He worked as a chorister and organist in various churches.

In 1731, Gluck began to study at the philosophical faculty of the university and at the same time compose music. Improving his skills, he continues to take lessons from Montenegrin.

In the spring of 1735, the young man ends up in Vienna, where he meets the Lombard prince Melzi. He invites Gluck to work in his home orchestra and takes him with him to Milan.

Gluck stayed in Milan from 1737 to 1741. Acting as a house musician in the Melzi family chapel, he simultaneously studied the basics of composition with the Italian composer G. B. Sammartini. With his help, he masters a new Italian style of music instrumentation. The fruit of this collaboration was six trios of sonatas, published in London in 1746.

Gluck's first success as an opera composer came in 1741, when his first opera Artaxerxes was staged in Milan. Since then, the composer has created one or even several honors every year, which are staged with constant success on the stage of the Milan theater and in other cities of Italy. In 1742 he wrote two operas - "Demetrius" and "Demophon", in 1743 one - "Tigran", but in 1744 he created four at once - "Sofonis-ba", "Hypermnestra", "Arzache" and "Poro ”, and in 1745 another one - “Phaedra”.

Unfortunately, the fate of Gluck's first works turned out to be sad: only a few fragments of them have survived. But it is known that the talented composer managed to change the tone of traditional Italian operas. He brought energy and dynamism to them and at the same time retained the passion and lyricism inherent in Italian music.

In 1745, at the invitation of Lord Middlesex, director of the Italian opera at the Haymarket Theatre, Gluck moved to London. There he met with Handel, who was then the most popular opera composer in England, and they arranged a kind of creative competition among themselves.

On March 25, 1746, they gave a joint concert at the Hay Market Theatre, at which Gluck's compositions and Handel's organ concerto, performed by the composer himself, were presented. True, relations between them remained strained. Handel did not recognize Gluck and once ironically remarked: "My cook knows counterpoint better than Gluck." However, Gluck treated Handel quite friendly and found his art divine.

In England, Gluck studied English folk songs, the melodies of which he later used in his work. In January 1746, the premiere of his opera The Fall of the Giants took place, and Gluck instantly became the hero of the day. However, the composer himself did not consider this work of genius. It was a kind of potpourri from his early works. Early ideas were also embodied in Gluck's second opera Artamena, staged in March of the same year. At the same time, the composer directs the Italian opera group Mingotti.

With her, Gluck moves from one European city to another. He writes operas, works with singers, conducts. In 1747, the composer staged the opera "The Wedding of Hercules and Hebe" in Dresden, the next year in Prague he staged two operas at once - "Recognized Semiramide" and "Ezio", and in 1752 - "Mercy of Titus" in Naples.

Gluck's wanderings ended in Vienna. In 1754 he was appointed to the post of court bandmaster. Then he fell in love with Marianne Pergin, the sixteen-year-old daughter of a wealthy Austrian entrepreneur. True, for some time he has to leave for Copenhagen, where he again composes an opera serenade in connection with the birth of the heir to the Danish throne. But back in Vienna, Gluck immediately marries his beloved. Their marriage was happy, although childless. Gluck later adopted his niece Marianne.

In Vienna, the composer leads a very busy life. He gives concerts every week, performing his arias and symphonies. In the presence of the imperial family, the premiere of his serenade opera, performed in September 1754 at Schlosshof Castle, is brilliant. The composer composes one opera after another, especially since the director of the court theater entrusted him with writing all theatrical and academic music. During a visit to Rome in 1756, Gluck was knighted.

In the late fifties, he suddenly had to change his creative style. From 1758 to 1764 he wrote several comic operas to librettos sent to him from France. In them, Gluck was free from traditional operatic canons and the obligatory use of mythological plots. Using the melodies of French vaudevilles, folk songs, the composer creates bright, cheerful works. True, over time, he abandons the folk basis, preferring a purely comic opera. This is how the composer's original operatic style is gradually formed: a combination of melody rich in nuances and a complex dramatic pattern.

Encyclopedists occupy a special place in Gluck's work. They wrote for him the libretto for the dramatic ballet "Don Giovanni", which was staged in Paris by the famous choreographer J. Noverre. Even earlier, he staged Gluck's ballets The Chinese Prince (1755) and Alexander (1755). From a simple plotless divertissement - an application to the opera - Gluck turned the ballet into a vivid dramatic performance.

Gradually improved and his composing skills. Work in the genre of comic opera, composing ballets, expressive music for the orchestra - all this prepared Gluck to create a new musical genre - musical tragedy.

Together with the Italian poet and playwright R. Calzabidgi, who then lived in Vienna, Gluck created three operas: in 1762 - "Orpheus and Eurydice", later, in 1774, its French version was created; in 1767 - "Alceste", and in 1770 - "Paris and Helena". In them, he refuses cumbersome and noisy music. Attention is focused on the dramatic plot and the experiences of the characters. Each character receives a complete musical description, and the whole opera turns into a single act that captivates the audience. All its parts are strictly commensurate with each other, the overture, according to the composer, as if warns the viewer about the nature of the future action.

Usually, an opera aria looked like a concert number, and the artist only tried to present it to the public in a favorable way. Gluck introduces extensive choruses into the opera, emphasizing the intensity of the action. Each scene acquires completeness, each word of the characters carries a deep content. Of course, Gluck would not have been able to carry out his plans without complete mutual understanding with the librettist. They work together, honing every verse and sometimes every word. Gluck wrote directly that he attributed his success to the fact that professionals worked with him. Previously, he did not attach such importance to the libretto. Now music and content exist in an inseparable whole.

But Gluck's innovations were not recognized by everyone. Fans of Italian opera initially did not accept his operas. Only the Paris Opera dared to stage his works at that time. The first of these is "Iphigenia in Aulis", followed by "Orpheus". Although Gluck has been appointed official court composer, he himself travels to Paris from time to time and follows productions.

However, the French version of "Alceste" was unsuccessful. Gluck falls into depression, which intensifies with the death of his niece, and in 1756 returns to Vienna. His friends and rivals are divided into two opposing parties. Opponents are led by the Italian composer N. Piccinni, who specially comes to Paris to enter into a creative competition with Gluck. It all ends with Gluck completing Artemis, but tearing up the sketches for Roland after learning of Piccinni's intentions.

The war of Glukists and Picchinnists reaches its climax in 1777-1778. In 1779, Gluck created Iphigenia in Tauris, which brought him the greatest stage success, and Piccinni staged Roland in 1778. Moreover, the composers themselves were not at enmity, they were on friendly terms and respected each other. Piccinni even admitted that sometimes, as, for example, in his opera Dido, he relied on some musical principles characteristic of Gluck. But in the autumn of 1779, after the public and critics coolly accepted the premiere of the opera Echo and Narcissus, Gluck left Paris forever. Returning to Vienna, he first felt a slight malaise, and the doctors advised him to stop his active musical activity.

For the last eight years of his life, Gluck lived without a break in Vienna. He revised his old operas, one of them, Iphigenia in Taurida, was staged in 1781 in connection with the visit of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich. In addition, he publishes his odes for voice with piano accompaniment to words by Klopstock. In Vienna, Gluck meets Mozart again, but, as in Paris, friendly relations between them do not arise.

The composer worked until the last days of his life. In the eighties, he had several cerebral hemorrhages one after another, from which he ultimately died, before he could complete the cantata The Last Judgment. His funeral was held in Vienna with a large gathering of people. A kind of monument to Gluck was the premiere of the cantata, which was completed by his student A. Salieri.