!!!Viennese Classic - Early Period
!!Christoph Willibald Gluck: ''Orfeo ed Euridice''

[{Image src='Wissenssammlungen/Musik-Lexikon/Christoph_Willibald_Gluck_Orfeo_ed_Euridice/080108a.jpg' height='250' alt='Orfeo ed Euridice' width='167' caption='Title page of the Paris print of "Orfeo ed Euridice" from 1764.'}]
''Orfeo ed Euridice'' is the first so-called Reform Opera, that
Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714 Erasbach/Oberpfalz - 1787 Vienna)
created together with the Italian librettist, Ranieri di Calzabigi in
1762. Gluck turned his back on the stiff conventions of the High
Baroque Period and particularly against those of the operas on texts by
Metastasio. These typically required many, unrealistic Da capo-arias
that held up the action and were often written especially for a
particular singer, as well as an artificial storyline which could only
be resolved by a  ''Deus ex machina''. For Gluck, the texts and the
characters should present dramatic and psychological truthfulness,
whereby the music served not only these texts but also the content of
the play. The explanation for the happy end that is brought about by a
higher power in this opera is that it was destined for a festive
performance. (E. Stadler)


!Sound Clip
[{Audio src='Wissenssammlungen/Musik-Lexikon/Christoph_Willibald_Gluck_Orfeo_ed_Euridice/080108am.mp3'
caption='Hörprobe von Christoph Willibald Gluck: "Orfeo ed Euridice"\\© Otto Preiser & Co. Ges.m.b.H., Wien, CD-Nr. Fono PR 89082'}]


[{Metadata Suchbegriff='' Kontrolle='Nein'}]

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