DICTIONARY OF MUSIC - El Atril

184 GLUCK GLUCK
may be detected the germ of Gluck's distinctive
tiualitiea. [About this time the composer fell
lished works.] From 1755 to 1761 Gluck was
permanently in ViennaT^nd to all appearance
failing ; he wrote divertissements for the palaces
of Laxemburg and Schonbrunn ; composed airs
for the comedies or comic operettas performed
at the court theatre : and produced an opera in
three acts, ' Tetide ' (1760), of which nothing
has survived. [The ballet of ' Don
'
Juan
(Vienna, 1761), and a visit to Bologna, were
the most prominent events of his career before
his definite change of style.] The years that
he spent in Vienna, far from being wasted,
w.ere probably most useful to him, for by these
api>arently insignificant works he was acquiring
flexibility of style, and securing powerful
patrons, without losing sight of his ultimate
aim. His opera ' Orfeo cd Euridice '
' (Vienna,
Oct. 5, 1762)— the libretto not as heretofore
by Metastasio, but by Calzabigi— showed to
all capable of forming a judgment what were
the aims of the relormcr of the lyric stage.
After the production of this fine work, however,
he returned to Metastasio and to piiccs de
circonstance for the court theatre—' II Trionfb
di Clelia ' (1763); 'La Rencontre imprevue,'
' afterwards produced in German as Die Pilgrime
Ton Mekka' (1764); 'II Parnasso confuso,'
'La Corona,' and 'Telemacco, ' first produced
in Rome, 1750, and partly re-written (1765) ;
in fact he wag obliged to bend to circumstances,
and before all things to please the princes who
protected him and sang his music. ' II Parnasso
was played by four archduchesses, the archduke
Leopold accompanying them on the harpsichord.
It was probably between this date and the
departure of Marie Antoinette for France (May
1770) that Gluck acted as singing master to
that princess.
At length, thinking the time had come for
bringing his ideas before the public, and finding
1 Printed la 17G4 in Paris at tile expense of Count Durazzo.
in Calzabigi a poet who shared his taste for
strong dramatic situations, he produced in
Paride
ia love with Marianna Peigin, daughter of a
rich merchant, wlio refused his consent to the
marriage. This, accordingly, took place after the
father's death on Sept. 15, 1750.] His next work
was 'Filide,' or ' La Contessa de' Numi' (1749),
a serenade, or more properly cantata, in two
acts, written at Copenhagen for the birthday of
Christian VII. ' Ezio ' was given at Prague in
1750, and 'La Clemenza di Tito' at Naples
1752 ; from the latter Gluck borrowed many
a page for his French operas ' Armide ' and
' Iphigi'uie en Tauride. ' These operas were
followed in 1752 by ' Issipile ' (Prague), and
in 175-1 by ' Le Cinesi,' first performed at
Schonbrunn, ' 'La Danza (La.xemburg, 1755),
' L' Innooenza giustificata ' (Vienna, 1755), and
' Antigono ' (Rome, 1756). [For this last he
was rewarded with the order of the Golden
Spur, and henceforth the title of ' Eitter ' or
' Chevalier '
' ' Vienna Alceste (Dec. 16, ' 1767) and
ed Elena' (1770). The scores of these operas
were published in Vienna (1769-70),
is ailded to his name in his pub-
•' and dedicated
respectively to the Archduchess Leopold
and the Duke of Braganza. Each contains a
dedicatory epistle, briefly explaining Gluck's
views on dramatic music. As far as theory
went, his system was not new, as it rested on
the outlines already sketched by Benedetto
Marcello in his ' Teatro alia Moda' (1720);
but theory and practice are two different things,
and Gluck has the rare merit of showing in his
' ' Alceste and ' ' Paride that he was both composer
and critic, and could not only imagine
but produce an opiera in which all is consecutive,
where the music faithfully interprets each situation,
and the interest arises from the perfect
adaptation of the enscmhie of the niusic to the
whole of the drama. The composition of these
two great works did not prevent his writing
the intermezzi of ' Le Feste d' Apollo, '
' Bauci e
Filemone, ' and 'Aristeo,' produced at the court
theatre of Parma in 1769, but not published.
In sfiite of the favour he enjoyed at the court
of Vienna, and of the incontestable beauties
contained in 'Orfeo,' 'Alceste,' and 'Paride ed
Elena,' Gluck's countrymen criticised his new
style in a manner so galling, that, conscious
of his own power, and by no means devoid of
vanity, he resolved to carry out elsewhere the
revolution he had determined to elfect in dramatic
music. In Bailly du Rollet, an attache of
the French embassy in Vienna, he found an
enthusiastic piartisan and a valuable auxiliary ;
they consulted as to a drama in which music
might be employed for enhancing the expression
of the words and the pathos of the situations ;
and their choice fell upon Racine's ' Iphigenie.
This opera, ' Ijihigenie en Aulide,' was written
in French in 1772, partially rehearsed at the
theatre in Vienna towards the end of the same
year, and produced at the 0[iera in Paris,
April 19, 1774. Gluck left no means untried
to ensure success — statements of his views,
public announcements (Mcrciire de France,
Oct. 1772 and Feb. 177.3), public tributes of
respect to J. J. Rousseau, letters to authors
whose good-will it was desirable to propitiate
in short everything that ability and experience
in such matters could suggest. And yet if it
had not been for the all-powerful protection of
his former pupil, Marie Antoinette, he would in
all probability have failed in getting his work
performed, so sti-ong was the opposition which
his arrival in France liad roused, especially
amongst those interested in keeping him out of
the ' Academic de Musique. ' The Dauphiness
seems to liave been really attached to her old
singing master. In a letter to her sister Marie
Christina (May 3, 1777) she calls ' him notre
2 Printed in folio by G. T. Trattnem with movable types.