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200th Anniversary of the Death of Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald Gluck's great role in western musical history was in no way pre-programmed from the beginning. Born in 1714 the son of a forest ranger in Oberpfalz and raised by his austere father, he was meant to follow his father's career path. However, at the age of 14 he ran away from home because he wanted more than anything to become a musician. In 1737 Gluck travelled to Milan as a musician in a royal orchestra. It was there that he composed several instrumental works. He composed his first opera at the age of 27. From 1746 to 1752 he lead a wandering life with the famous Piero Mingotti orchestra, after which he settled in Vienna. Performances by a French opera group took place here starting in 1752. These performances became a fixed arrangement as of 1754 under the theater manager Count Durazzo. To satisfy demands for French comedy opera in vogue back then in Vienna, Durazzo sought a composer able to arrange such operas. He found the right person in Gluck. In the decades that followed Gluck focused in particular on the reform of the traditional opera and in 1762 achieved great success in Vienna with his Italian opera "Orfeo ed Euridike". Gluck's fame was secured in 1779 with the smashing success of his last French opera "Iphigenie in Tauris". The musical genius died in November of 1787.
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