Christoph Willibald Gluck

2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787

Christoph Willibald Gluck was a German-born composer of Italian and French opera who worked mainly in Vienna and Paris. With Orfeo ed Euridice (1762) and the reform operas that followed, he sought to restore dramatic truth and simplicity to opera, profoundly influencing Mozart, Berlioz, and Wagner.

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Life events

Born in Erasbach, Upper Palatinate
2 July 1714

Christoph Willibald Gluck was born on 2 July 1714 in Erasbach, in present-day Bavaria, the son of a forester.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Birth ✓
Studied and worked as a musician in Prague
c. 1731

Around 1731 Gluck went to Prague, where he studied and supported himself as a church and chamber musician before moving on to Vienna and Italy.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Premiere of his first opera, Artaserse, in Milan
December 1741

Gluck's first opera, Artaserse, on a libretto by Metastasio, was staged in Milan in December 1741 and launched his Italian operatic career.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Visited London and met Handel
1745 – 1746

In 1745-1746 Gluck presented operas in London, where he encountered George Frideric Handel.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Married Maria Anna Bergin in Vienna
15 September 1750

On 15 September 1750 Gluck married Maria Anna Bergin, the daughter of a wealthy Viennese merchant, whose fortune gave him financial independence.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Settled in Vienna as a court composer
1752

In 1752 Gluck made Vienna his home, becoming Kapellmeister to Prince Joseph von Sachsen-Hildburghausen and later composing for the imperial court theatre.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Knighted with the Order of the Golden Spur
1756

In 1756 Pope Benedict XIV made Gluck a Knight of the Golden Spur, after which he styled himself Ritter von Gluck.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Premiere of the reform opera Orfeo ed Euridice
5 October 1762

Orfeo ed Euridice, the first of Gluck's reform operas written with librettist Ranieri de' Calzabigi, premiered in Vienna on 5 October 1762.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Premiere of Iphigénie en Aulide in Paris
19 April 1774

Gluck's first French opera, Iphigénie en Aulide, opened at the Paris Opéra on 19 April 1774, igniting the famous rivalry between his supporters and those of Niccolò Piccinni.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Died in Vienna
15 November 1787

After a series of strokes, Gluck died in Vienna on 15 November 1787.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Death ✓