Il Parnaso confuso (1765)
Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck (1714-1787), an admirer of Handel and Lully, studied in Prague and Italy. His earliest output was in the genre of conventional opera seria (he wrote no opera buffa) with lengthy da capo arias, but in the 1760s he developed radical approaches to dramatic narrative which have been identified as his ‘reform’ operas, most notably his masterpiece Orfeo ed Euridice. In such works he claimed to be returning to the natural and poetic origins of opera, stressing mood and drama rather than mere musicianship and vocal virtuosity.
Press
...a rewarding evening Opera, September 2011
