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“Before starting work, I try to forget that I am a musician,” said the composer Christoph Willibald Gluck, and these words best characterize his reformist approach to composing operas. Gluck “pulled out” the opera from the power of court aesthetics. He gave it the grandeur of ideas, psychological truthfulness, depth and strength of passions.

Christoph Willibald Gluck was born on July 2, 1714 in Erasbach, in the Austrian state of Falz. In early childhood, he often moved from one place to another, depending on which of the noble estates his forester father served. From 1717 he lived in the Czech Republic. He received the rudiments of musical knowledge at the Jesuit college in Komotau. After graduating from it in 1731, Gluck began to study philosophy at the University of Prague and study music with Boguslav Matej Chernogorsky. Unfortunately, Gluck, who lived in the Czech Republic until the age of twenty-two, did not receive the same strong professional education in his homeland as his colleagues in Central Europe.

The insufficiency of schooling was compensated by the strength and freedom of thought that allowed Gluck to turn to the new and relevant, lying outside the legal norms.

In 1735, Gluck became a house musician in the palace of the princes Lobkowitz in Vienna. Gluck's first stay in Vienna turned out to be short-lived: at one of the evenings in the salon of the princes Lobkowitz, the Italian aristocrat and philanthropist A.M. met the young musician. Melzi. Fascinated by Gluck's art, he invited him to his home chapel in Milan.

In 1737 Gluck took up his new position in the Melzi household. During the four years he lived in Italy, he became close to the greatest Milanese composer and organist Giovanni Battista Sammartini, becoming his student and later a close friend. The guidance of the Italian maestro helped Gluck complete his musical education. However, he became an opera composer mainly due to his innate instinct as a musical playwright and the gift of keen observation. On December 26, 1741, the Reggio Ducal Court Theater in Milan opened the new season with the opera Artaxerxes by the hitherto unknown Christoph Willibald Gluck. He was in his twenty-eighth year - the age at which other composers of the 18th century managed to achieve pan-European fame.

For his first opera, Gluck chose the libretto Metastasio, which inspired many composers of the 18th century. Gluck specially added the aria in the traditional Italian manner in order to emphasize the dignity of his music to the audience. The premiere was a great success. The choice of the libretto fell on "Demetrius" by Metastasio, renamed after the name of the main character in "Kleoniche".

Gluck's fame is growing rapidly. The Milan theater is once again eager to open its winter season with its opera. Gluck composes music on Metastasio's libretto "Demofont". This opera was such a great success in Milan that it was soon staged also in Reggio and Bologna. Then, Gluck's new operas are staged one after another in the cities of northern Italy: Tigran in Cremona, Sofonisba and Hippolytus in Milan, Hypermnestra in Venice, Por in Turin.

In November 1745, Gluck appeared in London, accompanying his former patron, Prince F.F. Lobkowitz. For lack of time, the composer prepared "pasticcio", that is, he composed the opera from previously composed music. Held in 1746, the premiere of two of his operas - "The Fall of the Giants" and "Artamen" - was held without much success.

In 1748, Gluck received an order for an opera for the court theater in Vienna. Furnished with magnificent splendor, the premiere of "Recognized Semiramide" in the spring of that year brought the composer a truly great success, which became the beginning of his triumphs at the Vienna court.

The further activity of the composer is connected with the troupe of G. B. Locatelli, who commissioned him the opera Aezio to be performed at the carnival celebrations of 1750 in Prague.

The luck that accompanied the Prague production of Aezio brought Gluck a new opera contract with the Locatelli troupe. It seemed that from now on the composer is more and more closely linking his fate with Prague. However, at this time, an event occurred that dramatically changed his former way of life: on September 15, 1750, he married Marianne Pergin, the daughter of a wealthy Viennese merchant. Gluck first met his future life partner back in 1748, when he was working in Vienna on "Recognized Semiramide". Despite the significant difference in age, a sincere deep feeling arose between the 34-year-old Gluck and the 16-year-old girl. Marianne inherited from her father a solid fortune made Gluck financially independent and allowed him to devote himself entirely to creativity in the future. Having finally settled in Vienna, he leaves it only to attend numerous premieres of his operas in other European cities. On all trips, the composer is invariably accompanied by his wife, who surrounded him with attention and care.

In the summer of 1752, Gluck received a new order from the director of the famous San Carlo Theater in Naples, one of the best in Italy. He writes the opera "Tito's Mercy", which brought him great success.

After the triumphant performance of Titus in Naples, Gluck returns to Vienna as a generally recognized master of the Italian opera seria. Meanwhile, the fame of the popular aria reached the capital of the Austrian Empire, arousing interest in its creator from Prince Joseph von Hildburghausen, a field marshal and musical patron. He invited Gluck to head as "accompanist" musical "academies", held weekly in his palace. Under the direction of Gluck, these concerts soon became one of the most interesting events in the musical life of Vienna; outstanding vocalists and instrumentalists performed at them.

In 1756, Gluck went to Rome to fulfill the order of the famous Argentine theater; he was to write the music for Metastasio's Antigone libretto. At that time, a performance in front of the Roman public was a serious test for any opera composer.

Antigone was a great success in Rome, and Gluck was awarded the Order of the Golden Spur. This order, ancient in its origin, was awarded for the purpose of encouraging outstanding representatives of science and art.

In the middle of the 18th century, the art of virtuoso singers reaches its peak, and the opera becomes exclusively a place for demonstrating the art of singing. Because of this, to a large extent, the connection between music and the drama itself was lost, which was characteristic of antiquity.

Gluck was already about fifty years old. A favorite of the public, awarded an honorary order, the author of many operas written in a purely traditional decorative style, he seemed unable to open new horizons in music. Intensively working thought did not break through to the surface for a long time, almost did not reflect on the character of his elegant, aristocratically cold creativity. And suddenly, at the turn of the 1760s, deviations from the conventional operatic style appeared in his works.

First, in an opera dating back to 1755 - "Justified Innocence" - there is a departure from the principles that dominated the Italian opera seria. It is followed by the ballet "Don Juan" on the plot of Molière (1761) - another harbinger of the operatic reform.

It wasn't an accident. The composer was remarkable for his amazing susceptibility to the latest trends of our time, his readiness for creative processing of a wide variety of artistic impressions.

As soon as he heard Handel's oratorios, which had just been created and were not yet known in continental Europe, in his younger years, their sublime heroic pathos and monumental "fresco" composition became an organic element of his own dramatic concepts. Along with the influences of Handel's magnificent "baroque" music, Gluck adopted from the musical life of London the endearing simplicity and apparent naivety of English folk ballads.

It was enough for his librettist and co-author of the Calzabidgi reform to draw Gluck's attention to the French lyrical tragedy, as he instantly became interested in its theatrical and poetic merits. The appearance of the French comic opera at the Vienna court was also reflected in the images of his future musical dramas: they descended from the stilted height cultivated in the opera seria under the influence of Metastasio's "reference" librettos, and became close to the real characters of the folk theater. The advanced literary youth, thinking about the fate of modern drama, easily involved Gluck in the circle of their creative interests, which forced him to take a critical look at the established conventions of the opera theater. Many similar examples, speaking of Gluck's acute creative susceptibility to the latest trends of modernity, could be cited. Gluck realized that music, plot development and theatrical performance should be the main ones in the opera, and not at all artistic singing with coloratura and technical excesses, subject to a single template.

The opera "Orpheus and Eurydice" was the first work in which Gluck implemented new ideas. Its premiere in Vienna on October 5, 1762 marked the beginning of the opera reform. Gluck wrote the recitative in such a way that the meaning of the words was in the first place, the part of the orchestra obeyed the general mood of the scene, and the singing static figures finally began to play, showed artistic qualities, and the singing would be combined with the action. The singing technique has become much simpler, but it has become more natural and much more attractive to the listeners. The overture in the opera also contributed to the introduction to the atmosphere and mood of the subsequent act. In addition, Gluck turned the chorus into a direct component of the flow of the drama. The wonderful originality of "Orpheus and Eurydice" in its "Italian" musicality. The dramatic structure here is based on complete musical numbers, which, like the arias of the Italian school, captivate with their melodic beauty and completeness.

Following Orpheus and Eurydice, Gluck five years later completes Alcesta (libretto by R. Calzabidgi after Euripides) - a drama of majestic and strong passions. The civic theme here is carried consistently through the conflict between social necessity and personal passions. Her drama is concentrated around two emotional states - "fear and sorrow" (Rousseau). There is something oratorical in the theatrical and narrative static character of Alceste, in a certain generalization, in the severity of its images. But at the same time there is a conscious desire to free oneself from the dominance of completed musical numbers and follow the poetic text.

In 1774, Gluck moved to Paris, where, in an atmosphere of pre-revolutionary enthusiasm, his operatic reform was completed and, under the undeniable influence of French theatrical culture, a new opera, Iphigenia en Aulis (according to Racine), was born. This is the first of three operas created by the composer for Paris. In contrast to Alcesta, the theme of civil heroism is built here with theatrical versatility. The main dramatic situation is enriched with a lyrical line, genre motifs, lush decorative scenes.

High tragic pathos is combined with everyday elements. Noteworthy in the musical structure are individual moments of dramatic climaxes, which stand out against the background of more "impersonal" material. "This is Racine's Iphigenia, remade into an opera," the Parisians themselves spoke of Gluck's first French opera.

In the next opera, Armida, written in 1779 (libretto by F. Kino), Gluck, in his own words, "tried to be ... rather a poet, a painter than a musician." Turning to the libretto of the famous opera by Lully, he wanted to revive the techniques of the French court opera on the basis of the latest, developed musical language, new principles of orchestral expressiveness and the achievements of his own reformist dramaturgy. The heroic beginning in "Armida" is intertwined with fantastic paintings.

“I wait with horror, no matter how they decide to compare Armida and Alcesta,” Gluck wrote, “... one should cause a tear, and the other should give sensual experiences.”

And, finally, the most amazing "Iphigenia in Tauris", composed in the same 1779 (according to Euripides)! The conflict between feeling and duty is expressed in it in psychological terms. Pictures of spiritual confusion, suffering, brought to paroxysms, form the central moment of the opera. The picture of a thunderstorm - a characteristically French touch - is embodied in the introduction by symphonic means with an unprecedented acuteness of foreboding tragedy.

Like the nine inimitable symphonies that "form" into a single concept of Beethoven's symphonism, these five operatic masterpieces, so related to each other and at the same time so individual, form a new style in the musical dramaturgy of the 18th century, which went down in history under the name of Gluck's opera reform.

Gluck's majestic tragedies, revealing the depth of human spiritual conflicts, raising civic issues, gave birth to a new idea of ​​musical beauty. If in the old court opera of France "they preferred ... wit to feeling, gallantry to passions, and the grace and color of versification to the pathos required ... by the situation", then in Gluck's drama high passions and sharp dramatic clashes destroyed the ideal orderliness and exaggerated elegance of the court opera style .

Each deviation from the expected and customary, each violation of standardized beauty, Gluck argued with a deep analysis of the movements of the human soul. It was in episodes like these that those bold musical techniques were born that anticipated the art of the “psychological” 19th century. It is no coincidence that in an era when operas in a conventional style were written by dozens and hundreds of individual composers, Gluck created only five reformist masterpieces over a quarter of a century. But each of them is unique in its dramatic appearance, each sparkles with individual musical finds.

Gluck's progressive efforts were not introduced into practice so easily and smoothly. The history of operatic art even included such a concept as the war of picchinists - supporters of old operatic traditions - and gluckists, who, on the contrary, saw the realization of their long-standing dream of a genuine musical drama gravitating towards antiquity in the new operatic style.

Adherents of the old, "purists and aesthetes" (as Gluck branded them), were repelled in his music by the "lack of refinement and nobility." They reproached him for “loss of taste”, pointed to the “barbaric and extravagant” nature of his art, to “cries of physical pain”, “convulsive sobs”, “screams of sorrow and despair”, which replaced the charm of a smooth, balanced melody.

Today these accusations seem ridiculous and baseless. Judging from Gluck's innovation with historical detachment, one can be convinced that he surprisingly carefully preserved those artistic techniques that were developed in the opera house over the previous century and a half and formed the "golden fund" of his expressive means. In Gluck's musical language, there is an obvious continuity with the expressive and pleasing melody of Italian opera, with the elegant "ballet" instrumental style of French lyrical tragedy. But in his eyes, "music's true purpose" was "to give poetry more new expressive power". Therefore, striving to embody the dramatic idea of ​​the libretto in musical sounds with maximum completeness and truthfulness (and Calzabidgi's poetic texts were saturated with genuine drama), the composer persistently rejected all decorative and cliché techniques that contradicted this. “Inappropriately applied beauty not only loses most of its effect, but also harms, leading astray the listener who is not already in the position necessary to follow the dramatic development with interest,” Gluck said.

And the composer's new expressive techniques really destroyed the conditional typed "beautifulness" of the old style, but at the same time expanded the dramatic possibilities of music to the maximum.

It was Gluck who appeared in the vocal parts with speech, declamatory intonations that contradicted the “sweet” smooth melody of the old opera, but truthfully reflecting the life of the stage image. The closed static performances of the "concert in costumes" style, separated by dry recitatives, disappeared forever from his operas. Their place was taken by a new close-up composition, built according to the scenes, contributing to the through musical development and emphasizing the musical and dramatic climaxes. The orchestral part, doomed to a miserable role in the Italian opera, began to participate in the development of the image, and in Gluck's orchestral scores, hitherto unknown dramatic possibilities of instrumental sounds were revealed.

“Music, music itself, has passed into action...” Gretry wrote about Gluck's opera. Indeed, for the first time in the centuries-old history of the opera house, the idea of ​​drama was embodied in music with such fullness and artistic perfection. The astonishing simplicity that determined the appearance of every thought expressed by Gluck also turned out to be incompatible with the old aesthetic criteria.

Far beyond this school, in the opera and instrumental music of various European countries, aesthetic ideals, dramatic principles, and forms of musical expression developed by Gluck were introduced. Outside of the Gluckian reform, not only the operatic, but also the chamber-symphonic work of the late Mozart, and, to a certain extent, the oratorio art of the late Haydn would not have matured. Between Gluck and Beethoven, the continuity is so natural, so obvious that it seems as if the musician of the older generation bequeathed to the great symphonist to continue the work he had begun.

Gluck spent the last years of his life in Vienna, where he returned in 1779. The composer died on November 15, 1787 in Vienna. The ashes of Gluck, initially buried in one of the surrounding cemeteries, were subsequently transferred to the central city cemetery, where all the outstanding representatives of the musical culture of Vienna are buried.

1. five more, please...

Gluck dreamed of making his debut with his opera at the English Royal Academy of Music, formerly known as the Grand Opera House. The composer sent the score of the opera "Iphigenia in Aulis" to the directorate of the theatre. The director was frankly frightened by this unusual - unlike anything - work and decided to play it safe by writing the following answer to Gluck: "If Mr. Gluck undertakes to present at least six equally magnificent operas, I will be the first to contribute to the presentation of Iphigenia. Without this, no, for this opera transcends and destroys all that has existed before."

2. a little bit wrong

Some fairly wealthy and distinguished dilettante, out of boredom, decided to take up music and, for a start, composed an opera ... Gluck, to whom he gave it for judgment, returning the manuscript, said with a sigh:
- You know, my dear, your opera is quite nice, but ...
Do you think she's missing something?
- Perhaps.
- What?
- I suppose poverty.

3. easy exit

Passing somehow past a store, Gluck slipped and broke the window glass. He asked the owner of the store how much the glass cost, and learning that it was one and a half francs, he gave him a coin of three francs. But the owner did not have change, and he already wanted to go to a neighbor to exchange money, but was stopped by Gluck.
"Don't waste your time," he said. “You don’t need to surrender, I’d rather break the glass for you one more time…”

4. "the main thing is that the suit fits ..."

At the rehearsal of Iphigenia in Aulis, Gluck drew attention to the unusually overweight, as they say, "non-stage" figure of the singer Larrivé, who performed the part of Agamemnon, and did not fail to notice this aloud.
“Patience, maestro,” said Larrivé, “you haven't seen me in a suit. I'm willing to bet anything that I'm unrecognizable in a suit.
At the very first rehearsal in costume, Gluck shouted from the stalls:
- Larriv! You bet! Unfortunately, I recognized you without difficulty!

Possessing also good vocal skills, Gluck sang in the choir of the Cathedral of St. Jakub and played in an orchestra conducted by the largest Czech composer and musical theorist Boguslav Chernogorsky, sometimes went to the vicinity of Prague, where he performed for peasants and artisans.

Gluck attracted the attention of Prince Philipp von Lobkowitz and in 1735 was invited to his Viennese house as a chamber musician; apparently, in the house of Lobkowitz, the Italian aristocrat A. Melzi heard him and invited him to his private chapel - in 1736 or 1737 Gluck ended up in Milan. In Italy, the birthplace of opera, he had the opportunity to get acquainted with the work of the greatest masters of this genre; At the same time, he studied composition under the guidance of Giovanni Sammartini, a composer not so much of an opera as of a symphony; but it was under his leadership, as S. Rytsarev writes, that Gluck mastered the ““modest” but confident homophonic writing”, which was already fully established in Italian opera, while the polyphonic tradition still dominated in Vienna.

In December 1741, Gluck's first opera, the opera seria Artaxerxes, to a libretto by Pietro Metastasio, premiered in Milan. In "Artaxerxes", as in all of Gluck's early operas, the imitation of Sammartini was still noticeable, nevertheless, he was a success, which entailed orders from different cities of Italy, and in the next four years no less successful opera series were created " Demetrius", "Por", "Demophon", "Hypermnestra" and others.

In the autumn of 1745, Gluck went to London, from where he received an order for two operas, but already in the spring of the following year he left the English capital and joined the Mingotti brothers' Italian opera troupe as a second conductor, with whom he toured Europe for five years. In 1751 in Prague he left Mingotti for the post of bandmaster in the company of Giovanni Locatelli, and in December 1752 settled in Vienna. Having become bandmaster of the orchestra of Prince Joseph of Saxe-Hildburghausen, Gluck led his weekly concerts - "academies", in which he performed both other people's compositions and his own. According to contemporaries, Gluck was also an outstanding opera conductor and knew the peculiarities of ballet art well.

In search of musical drama

In 1754, at the suggestion of the manager of the Vienna theaters, Count J. Durazzo, Gluck was appointed conductor and composer of the Court Opera. In Vienna, gradually becoming disillusioned with the traditional Italian opera seria - “opera aria”, in which the beauty of melody and singing took on a self-sufficient character, and composers often became hostages to the whims of prima donnas, he turned to the French comic opera (“Merlin’s Island”, “ The Imaginary Slave, The Reformed Drunkard, The Fooled Cady, etc.), and even for ballet: the ballet-pantomime Don Giovanni created in collaboration with the choreographer G. Angiolini (based on the play by J.-B. Molière), a real choreographic drama, became the first incarnation of Gluck's desire to turn the operatic stage into a dramatic one.

In his quest, Gluck found support from the chief intendant of the opera, Count Durazzo, and his compatriot poet and playwright Ranieri de Calzabidgi, who wrote the libretto of Don Giovanni. The next step in the direction of musical drama was their new joint work - the opera Orpheus and Eurydice, in the first edition staged in Vienna on October 5, 1762. Under the pen of Calzabigi, the ancient Greek myth turned into an ancient drama, in full accordance with the tastes of that time; however, neither in Vienna nor in other European cities was the opera successful with the public.

The need to reform the opera seria, writes S. Rytsarev, was dictated by the objective signs of its crisis. At the same time, it was necessary to overcome "the age-old and incredibly strong tradition of opera-spectacle, a musical performance with a well-established separation of the functions of poetry and music" . In addition, the dramaturgy of static was characteristic of the opera seria; it was justified by the “theory of affects”, which suggested for each emotional state - sadness, joy, anger, etc. - the use of certain means of musical expression established by theorists, and did not allow individualization of experiences. The transformation of stereotyping into a value criterion gave rise in the first half of the 18th century, on the one hand, to a boundless number of operas, on the other hand, their very short life on stage, on average from 3 to 5 performances.

Gluck in his reformist operas, writes S. Rytsarev, “made the music ‘work’ for the drama not in individual moments of the performance, which was often found in contemporary opera, but throughout its entire duration. Orchestral means acquired effectiveness, a secret meaning, they began to counterpoint the development of events on the stage. A flexible, dynamic change of recitative, aria, ballet and choral episodes has developed into a musical and plot eventfulness, entailing a direct emotional experience.

Other composers also searched in this direction, including in the genre of comic opera, Italian and French: this young genre had not yet had time to petrify, and it was easier to develop its healthy tendencies from the inside than in the opera seria. Commissioned by the court, Gluck continued to write operas in the traditional style, generally preferring comic opera. A new and more perfect embodiment of his dream of a musical drama was the heroic opera Alceste, created in collaboration with Calzabidgi in 1767, in its first edition presented in Vienna on December 26 of the same year. Dedicating the opera to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, the future Emperor Leopold II, Gluck wrote in the preface to Alceste:

It seemed to me that music should play in relation to a poetic work the same role played by the brightness of colors and correctly distributed effects of chiaroscuro, enlivening the figures without changing their contours in relation to the drawing ... I tried to expel from music all the excesses against which they protest in vain common sense and justice. I believed that the overture should illuminate the action for the audience and serve as an introductory overview of the content: the instrumental part should be conditioned by the interest and tension of the situations ... All my work should have been reduced to the search for noble simplicity, freedom from the ostentatious heap of difficulties at the expense of clarity; the introduction of some new techniques seemed to me valuable insofar as it corresponded to the situation. And finally, there is no such rule that I would not break in order to achieve greater expressiveness. These are my principles.

Such a fundamental subordination of music to a poetic text was revolutionary for that time; in an effort to overcome the number structure characteristic of the then opera seria, Gluck not only combined the episodes of the opera into large scenes permeated with a single dramatic development, he tied the opera and the overture to the action, which at that time usually represented a separate concert number; in order to achieve greater expressiveness and drama, he increased the role of the choir and orchestra. Neither Alcesta nor the third reformist opera to Calzabidgi's libretto, Paris and Helena (1770), found support from either the Viennese or the Italian public.

Gluck's duties as court composer also included teaching music to the young Archduchess Marie Antoinette; having become the wife of the heir to the French throne in April 1770, Marie Antoinette invited Gluck to Paris. However, other circumstances influenced the composer's decision to move his activities to the capital of France to a much greater extent.

Glitch in Paris

In Paris, meanwhile, a struggle was going on around the opera, which became the second act of the struggle between the adherents of the Italian opera (“buffonists”) and the French (“anti-buffonists”), which had died down back in the 50s. This confrontation even split the royal family: the French king Louis XVI preferred the Italian opera, while his Austrian wife Marie Antoinette supported the national French. The split also struck the famous Encyclopedia: its editor, D'Alembert, was one of the leaders of the "Italian Party", and many of its authors, led by Voltaire and Rousseau, actively supported the French. The stranger Gluck very soon became the banner of the "French party", and since the Italian troupe in Paris at the end of 1776 was headed by the famous and popular composer of those years Niccolò Piccinni, the third act of this musical and public polemic went down in history as a struggle between the "gluckists" and "picchinists". In a struggle that seemed to unfold around styles, the dispute in reality was about what an opera performance should be - just an opera, a luxurious spectacle with beautiful music and beautiful vocals, or something significantly more: the encyclopedists were waiting for a new social content, consonant with pre-revolutionary era. In the struggle between the “glukists” and the “picchinists”, which 200 years later already seemed like a grandiose theatrical performance, as in the “war of the buffoons”, according to S. Rytsarev, “powerful cultural layers of aristocratic and democratic art” entered into controversy.

In the early 1970s Gluck's reformist operas were unknown in Paris; in August 1772, the attaché of the French embassy in Vienna, François le Blanc du Roullet, brought them to the attention of the public in the pages of the Parisian magazine Mercure de France. The paths of Gluck and Calzabidgi diverged: with the reorientation to Paris, du Roullet became the main librettist of the reformer; in collaboration with him, the opera Iphigenia in Aulis (based on the tragedy by J. Racine), staged in Paris on April 19, 1774, was written for the French public. The success was consolidated, although it caused fierce controversy, the new, French edition of Orpheus and Eurydice.

Recognition in Paris did not go unnoticed in Vienna: if Marie Antoinette granted Gluck 20,000 livres for "Iphigenia" and the same for "Orpheus", then Maria Theresa on October 18, 1774 in absentia awarded Gluck the title of "actual imperial and royal court composer" with an annual with a salary of 2000 guilders. Thanking for the honor, after a short stay in Vienna, Gluck returned to France, where at the beginning of 1775 a new edition of his comic opera The Enchanted Tree, or the Deceived Guardian (written back in 1759) was staged, and in April, at the Royal Academy music, - a new edition of Alcesta.

The Parisian period is considered by music historians to be the most significant in Gluck's work. The struggle between the "glukists" and "picchinists", which inevitably turned into personal rivalry between the composers (which, however, did not affect their relationship), went on with varying success; by the mid-70s, the “French Party” also split into adherents of traditional French opera (J. B. Lully and J. F. Rameau), on the one hand, and Gluck’s new French opera, on the other. Willingly or unwittingly, Gluck himself challenged the traditionalists, using for his heroic opera Armida a libretto written by F. Kino (based on the poem Jerusalem Liberated by T. Tasso) for the opera of the same name by Lully. "Armida", which premiered at the Royal Academy of Music on September 23, 1777, was apparently perceived so differently by representatives of various "parties" that even 200 years later, some spoke of a "tremendous success", others - of a "failure". » .

Nevertheless, this struggle ended with the victory of Gluck, when on May 18, 1779, his opera “Iphigenia in Tauris” was presented at the Royal Academy of Music (to the libretto by N. Gniyar and L. du Roullet based on the tragedy of Euripides), which many still consider composer's best opera. Niccolo Piccinni himself acknowledged Gluck's "musical revolution". Even earlier, J. A. Houdon sculpted a white marble bust of the composer with an inscription in Latin: “Musas praeposuit sirenis” (“He preferred the muses to the sirens”) - in 1778 this bust was installed in the foyer of the Royal Academy of Music next to the busts of Lully and Rameau.

Last years

On September 24, 1779, the premiere of Gluck's last opera, Echo and Narcissus, took place in Paris; however, even earlier, in July, the composer was struck by a stroke, which turned into partial paralysis. In the autumn of the same year, Gluck returned to Vienna, which he never left again: a new attack of the disease occurred in June 1781.

During this period, the composer continued his work, begun back in 1773, on odes and songs for voice and piano to the verses of F. G. Klopstock (German. Klopstocks Oden und Lieder beim Clavier zu singen in Musik gesetzt ), dreamed of creating a German national opera based on the plot of Klopstock's "Battle of Arminius", but these plans were not destined to come true. Anticipating his imminent departure, approximately in 1782, Gluck wrote "De profundis" - a small work for a four-part choir and orchestra on the text of the 129th psalm, which was performed on November 17, 1787 at the composer's funeral by his student and follower Antonio Salieri. On November 14 and 15, Gluck experienced three more apoplexy attacks; he died on November 15, 1787, and was originally buried in the church cemetery in the suburb of Matzleinsdorf; in 1890 his ashes were transferred to the Vienna Central Cemetery.

Creation

Christoph Willibald Gluck was a predominantly operatic composer, but the exact number of operas he owned has not been established: on the one hand, some compositions have not survived, on the other hand, Gluck repeatedly remade his own operas. "Musical Encyclopedia" calls the number 107, while listing only 46 operas.

At the end of his life, Gluck said that "only the foreigner Salieri" adopted his manners from him, "because not a single German wanted to learn them"; nevertheless, he found many followers in different countries, each of whom applied his principles in his own way in his own work - in addition to Antonio Salieri, this is primarily Luigi Cherubini, Gaspare Spontini and L. van Beethoven, and later Hector Berlioz, who called Gluck "Aeschylus of Music"; among the closest followers, the composer's influence is sometimes noticeable outside of operatic creativity, as with Beethoven, Berlioz and Franz Schubert. As for the creative ideas of Gluck, they determined the further development of the opera house, in the 19th century there was no major opera composer who, to a greater or lesser extent, would not have been influenced by these ideas; Gluck was also approached by another operatic reformer - Richard Wagner, who half a century later encountered on the opera stage the same "costume concert" against which Gluck's reform was directed. The composer's ideas were not alien to the Russian opera cult - from Mikhail Glinka to Alexander Serov.

Gluck also wrote a number of works for orchestra - symphonies or overtures (in the days of the composer's youth, the distinction between these genres was still not clear enough), a concerto for flute and orchestra (G-dur), 6 trio sonatas for 2 violins and general bass, written by back in the 40s. In collaboration with G. Angiolini, in addition to Don Giovanni, Gluck created three more ballets: Alexander (1765), as well as Semiramide (1765) and The Chinese Orphan - both based on the tragedies of Voltaire.

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Notes

1. , from. 466.
2. , from. 40.
3. , from. 244.
4. , from. 41.
5. , from. 42-43.
6. , from. 1021.
7. , from. 43-44.
8. , from. 467.
9. , from. 1020.
10. , from. chapter 11.
11. , from. 1018-1019.
12. Gozenpud A. A. Opera dictionary. - M.-L. : Music, 1965. - S. 290-292. - 482 p.
13. , from. 10.
14. Rosenshield K.K. Affect theory // Musical Encyclopedia (edited by Yu. V. Keldysh). - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1973. - T. 1.
15. , from. 13.
16. , from. 12.
17. Gozenpud A. A. Opera dictionary. - M.-L. : Music, 1965. - S. 16-17. - 482 p.
18. Cit. by: Gozenpud A. A. Decree. op., p. 16
19. , from. 1018.
20. , from. 77.
21. , from. 163-168.
22. , from. 1019.
23. , from. 6:12-13.
24. , from. 48-49.
25. , from. 82-83.
26. , from. 23.
27. , from. 84.
28. , from. 79, 84-85.
29. , from. 84-85.
30. . Ch. W. Gluck. Gluck-Gesamtausgabe. Forschungsstelle Salzburg. Retrieved December 30, 2015.
31. , from. 1018, 1022.
32. Tsodokov E.. Belcanto.ru. Retrieved February 15, 2013.
33. , from. 107.
34. . Internationale Gluck-Gesellschaft. Retrieved December 30, 2015.
35. , from. 108.
36. , from. 22.
37. , from. 16.
38. , from. 1022.

Literature

• Markus S. A. Gluck K. V. // Musical encyclopedia / ed. Yu. V. Keldysh. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1973. - T. 1. - S. 1018-1024.
• Knights S. Christoph Willibald Gluck. - M .: Music, 1987.
• Kirillina L.V. Gluck's reformist operas. - M .: Classics-XXI, 2006. - 384 p. - ISBN 5-89817-152-5.
• Konen V.D. Theater and symphony. - M .: Music, 1975. - 376 p.
• Braudo E.M. Chapter 21 // General history of music. - M ., 1930. - T. 2. From the beginning of the 17th to the middle of the 19th century.
• Balashsha I., Gal D. Sh. Guide to Operas: In 4 volumes. - M .: Soviet sport, 1993. - T. 1.
• Bamberg F.(German) // Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie. - 1879. - Bd. nine . - S. 244-253.
• Schmid H.(German) // Neue Deutsche Biographie. - 1964. - Bd. 6. - S. 466-469.
• Einstein A. Gluck: Sein Leben - seine Werke. - Zürich; Stuttgart: Pan-Verlag, 1954. - 315 p.
• Grout D.J., Williams H.W. The Operas of Gluck // A Short History of Opera. - Columbia University Press, 2003. - S. 253-271. - 1030 p. - ISBN 9780231119580.
• Lippman E.A. Operatic Aesthetics // A History of Western Musical Aesthetics. - University of Nebraska Press, 1992. - S. 137-202. - 536 p. - ISBN 0-8032-2863-5.

Links

• Gluck: sheet music of works at the International Music Score Library Project
• . Internationale Gluck-Gesellschaft. Retrieved February 15, 2015.
• . Ch. W. Gluck. Vita. Gluck-Gesamtausgabe. Forschungsstelle Salzburg. Retrieved February 15, 2015.

Excerpt characterizing Gluck, Christoph Willibald

“The sacrament, mother, is great,” answered the clergyman, running his hand over his bald head, along which lay several strands of combed half-gray hair.
- Who is this? Was he the commander in chief? asked at the other end of the room. - What a youthful! ...
- And the seventh decade! What, they say, the count does not know? Wanted to congregate?
- I knew one thing: I took unction seven times.
The second princess had just left the patient's room with tearful eyes and sat down beside Dr. Lorrain, who was sitting in a graceful pose under the portrait of Catherine, leaning on the table.
“Tres beau,” said the doctor, answering a question about the weather, “tres beau, princesse, et puis, a Moscou on se croit a la campagne.” [beautiful weather, princess, and then Moscow looks so much like a village.]
- N "est ce pas? [Isn't it?] - said the princess, sighing. - So can he drink?
Lorren considered.
Did he take medicine?
- Yes.
The doctor looked at the breguet.
- Take a glass of boiled water and put une pincee (he showed with his thin fingers what une pincee means) de cremortartari ... [a pinch of cremortartar ...]
- Do not drink, listen, - the German doctor said to the adjutant, - that the shiv remained from the third blow.
And what a fresh man he was! the adjutant said. And who will this wealth go to? he added in a whisper.
“The farmer will be found,” the German replied, smiling.
Everyone again looked at the door: it creaked, and the second princess, having made the drink shown by Lorrain, carried it to the patient. The German doctor approached Lorrain.
"Maybe it'll make it to tomorrow morning, too?" the German asked, speaking badly in French.
Lorren, pursing his lips, sternly and negatively waved his finger in front of his nose.
“Tonight, not later,” he said quietly, with a decent smile of self-satisfaction in that he clearly knew how to understand and express the situation of the patient, and walked away.

Meanwhile, Prince Vasily opened the door to the princess's room.
The room was semi-dark; only two lamps were burning in front of the images, and there was a good smell of smoke and flowers. The whole room was set with small furniture of chiffonieres, cupboards, tables. From behind the screens one could see the white bedspreads of a high feather bed. The dog barked.
“Ah, is that you, mon cousin?”
She got up and straightened her hair, which she always, even now, was so unusually smooth, as if it had been made from one piece with her head and covered with varnish.
- What, something happened? she asked. - I'm already so scared.
- Nothing, everything is the same; I just came to talk to you, Katish, about business, - the prince said, wearily sitting down on the chair from which she got up. “How hot you are, however,” he said, “well, sit down here, causons. [talk.]
“I thought, did something happen? - said the princess, and with her unchanging, stonyly stern expression, sat down opposite the prince, preparing to listen.
“I wanted to sleep, mon cousin, but I can’t.
- Well, what, my dear? - said Prince Vasily, taking the hand of the princess and bending it down according to his habit.
It was evident that this "well, what" referred to many things that, without naming, they understood both.
The princess, with her incongruously long legs, dry and straight waist, looked directly and impassively at the prince with bulging gray eyes. She shook her head and sighed as she looked at the icons. Her gesture could be explained both as an expression of sadness and devotion, and as an expression of fatigue and hope for a quick rest. Prince Vasily explained this gesture as an expression of fatigue.
“But for me,” he said, “do you think it’s easier?” Je suis ereinte, comme un cheval de poste; [I'm mortified like a mail horse;] but still I need to talk to you, Katish, and very seriously.
Prince Vasily fell silent, and his cheeks began to twitch nervously, first to one side, then to the other, giving his face an unpleasant expression, which was never shown on the face of Prince Vasily when he was in drawing rooms. His eyes, too, were not the same as always: now they looked insolently jokingly, now they looked around in fright.
The princess, with her dry, thin hands holding the little dog on her knees, looked attentively into the eyes of Prince Vasily; but it was clear that she would not break the silence with a question, even if she had to remain silent until morning.
“You see, my dear princess and cousin, Katerina Semyonovna,” continued Prince Vasily, apparently starting to continue his speech not without internal struggle, “at such moments as now, everything must be thought about. We need to think about the future, about you ... I love you all like my children, you know that.
The princess looked at him just as dull and motionless.
“Finally, we need to think about my family,” Prince Vasily continued, angrily pushing the table away from him and not looking at her, “you know, Katish, that you, the three Mammoth sisters, and even my wife, we are the only direct heirs of the count. I know, I know how hard it is for you to talk and think about such things. And it's not easier for me; but, my friend, I'm in my sixties, I have to be ready for anything. Do you know that I sent for Pierre, and that the count, directly pointing to his portrait, demanded him to himself?
Prince Vasily looked inquiringly at the princess, but could not understand whether she understood what he said to her, or simply looked at him ...
“I do not stop praying to God for one thing, mon cousin,” she answered, “that he would have mercy on him and let his beautiful soul leave this one in peace ...
“Yes, it’s true,” Prince Vasily continued impatiently, rubbing his bald head and again angrily pushing the pushed table towards him, “but, finally ... finally, the point is, you yourself know that last winter the count wrote a will, according to which he all the estate , in addition to the direct heirs and us, gave to Pierre.
- Didn't he write wills! the princess said calmly. - But he could not bequeath to Pierre. Pierre is illegal.
“Ma chere,” Prince Vasily suddenly said, pressing the table to himself, perking up and starting to talk more quickly, “but what if the letter is written to the sovereign, and the count asks to adopt Pierre? You see, according to the merits of the count, his request will be respected ...
The princess smiled, the way people smile who think they know a thing more than those they talk to.
“I’ll tell you more,” continued Prince Vasily, grabbing her by the hand, “the letter was written, although not sent, and the sovereign knew about it. The only question is whether it is destroyed or not. If not, then how soon everything will end, - Prince Vasily sighed, making it clear that he meant by the words everything will end, - and the count's papers will be opened, the will with the letter will be handed over to the sovereign, and his request will probably be respected. Pierre, as a legitimate son, will receive everything.
What about our unit? asked the princess, smiling ironically as if anything but this could happen.
- Mais, ma pauvre Catiche, c "est clair, comme le jour. [But, my dear Katish, it's clear as day.] He alone then is the rightful heir to everything, and you won't get any of this. You should know, my dear, were the will and letter written and destroyed, and if for some reason they are forgotten, then you should know where they are and find them, because ...
- It just wasn't enough! the princess interrupted him, smiling sardonically and without changing the expression of her eyes. - I am a woman; according to you we are all stupid; but I know so well that an illegitimate son cannot inherit ... Un batard, [Illegal,] - she added, believing that this translation would finally show the prince his groundlessness.
- How can you not understand, finally, Katish! You are so smart: how can you not understand - if the count wrote a letter to the sovereign, in which he asks him to recognize his son as legitimate, then Pierre will no longer be Pierre, but Count Bezukha, and then he will receive everything according to the will? And if the will with the letter is not destroyed, then you, except for the consolation that you were virtuous et tout ce qui s "en suit, [and everything that follows from this] will have nothing left. That's right.
– I know that the will is written; but I also know that it is not valid, and you seem to consider me a complete fool, mon cousin, ”said the princess with that expression with which women speak, believing that they said something witty and insulting.
“You are my dear Princess Katerina Semyonovna,” Prince Vasily spoke impatiently. - I came to you not to quarrel with you, but to talk about your own interests as with my own, good, kind, true relatives. I tell you for the tenth time that if a letter to the sovereign and a will in favor of Pierre are in the papers of the count, then you, my dear, and with your sisters, are not an heiress. If you don’t believe me, then believe people who know: I just spoke with Dmitri Onufriich (he was the lawyer at home), he said the same thing.
Apparently, something suddenly changed in the thoughts of the princess; thin lips turned pale (the eyes remained the same), and her voice, while she spoke, broke through with such peals as she herself apparently did not expect.
“That would be good,” she said. I didn't want anything and don't want to.
She kicked her dog off her knees and straightened the folds of her dress.
“This is gratitude, this is gratitude to the people who sacrificed everything for him,” she said. - Wonderful! Very good! I don't need anything, prince.
“Yes, but you are not alone, you have sisters,” Prince Vasily answered.
But the princess did not listen to him.
“Yes, I knew this for a long time, but I forgot that, apart from baseness, deceit, envy, intrigues, except ingratitude, the blackest ingratitude, I could not expect anything in this house ...
Do you or don't you know where this will is? asked Prince Vasily with even more twitching of his cheeks than before.
- Yes, I was stupid, I still believed in people and loved them and sacrificed myself. And only those who are vile and vile have time. I know whose intrigues it is.
The princess wanted to get up, but the prince held her by the hand. The princess had the appearance of a man suddenly disillusioned with the whole human race; she glared angrily at her interlocutor.
“There is still time, my friend. You remember, Katish, that all this happened by accident, in a moment of anger, illness, and then forgotten. Our duty, my dear, is to correct his mistake, to ease his last moments by preventing him from doing this injustice, not to let him die thinking that he made those people unhappy ...
“Those people who sacrificed everything for him,” the princess picked up, trying to get up again, but the prince did not let her in, “which he never knew how to appreciate. No, mon cousin,” she added with a sigh, “I will remember that in this world no reward can be expected, that in this world there is neither honor nor justice. In this world, one must be cunning and evil.
- Well, voyons, [listen,] calm down; I know your beautiful heart.
No, I have a bad heart.
“I know your heart,” the prince repeated, “I appreciate your friendship and would like you to have the same opinion about me.” Calm down and parlons raison, [let's talk plainly,] while there is time - maybe a day, maybe an hour; tell me everything you know about the will, and, most importantly, where it is: you must know. We'll take it now and show it to the count. He probably forgot about him already and wants to destroy him. You understand that my one desire is to sacredly fulfill his will; I then just came here. I'm only here to help him and you.
“Now I understand everything. I know whose intrigues it is. I know, - said the princess.
“That is not the point, my soul.
- This is your protegee, [favorite,] your dear Princess Drubetskaya, Anna Mikhailovna, whom I would not want to have a maid, this vile, vile woman.
– Ne perdons point de temps. [Let's not waste time.]
- Oh, don't talk! Last winter she rubbed herself in here and said such nasty things, such nasty things to the count about all of us, especially Sophie - I can’t repeat it - that the count became ill and did not want to see us for two weeks. At this time, I know that he wrote this nasty, vile paper; but I thought this paper meant nothing.
– Nous y voila, [That's the point.] Why didn't you tell me before?
“In the mosaic briefcase he keeps under his pillow. Now I know,” said the princess, without answering. “Yes, if there is a sin for me, a big sin, then it is hatred for this bastard,” the princess almost shouted, completely changed. “And why is she rubbing herself here?” But I will tell her everything, everything. The time will come!

While such conversations were taking place in the waiting room and in the princess's rooms, the carriage with Pierre (who was sent for) and Anna Mikhailovna (who found it necessary to go with him) drove into the courtyard of Count Bezukhoy. When the wheels of the carriage sounded softly on the straw laid under the windows, Anna Mikhailovna, turning to her companion with consoling words, convinced herself that he was sleeping in the corner of the carriage, and woke him up. Waking up, Pierre got out of the carriage after Anna Mikhailovna, and then only thought of that meeting with his dying father that awaited him. He noticed that they did not drive up to the front, but to the back entrance. While he was getting off the footboard, two men in bourgeois clothes hurriedly ran away from the entrance into the shadow of the wall. Pausing, Pierre saw in the shadow of the house on both sides several more of the same people. But neither Anna Mikhailovna, nor the footman, nor the coachman, who could not but see these people, paid no attention to them. Therefore, this is so necessary, Pierre decided with himself, and followed Anna Mikhailovna. Anna Mikhailovna walked with hasty steps up the dimly lit narrow stone stairs, calling Pierre, who was lagging behind her, who, although he did not understand why he had to go to the count at all, and still less why he had to go along the back stairs, but , judging by the confidence and haste of Anna Mikhailovna, he decided to himself that this was necessary. Halfway down the stairs they were almost knocked down by some people with buckets, who, clattering with their boots, ran towards them. These people pressed against the wall to let Pierre and Anna Mikhailovna through, and did not show the slightest surprise at the sight of them.
- Are there half princesses here? Anna Mikhailovna asked one of them...
“Here,” the footman answered in a bold, loud voice, as if everything was already possible now, “the door is on the left, mother.”
“Perhaps the count did not call me,” said Pierre, while he went out onto the platform, “I would have gone to my place.
Anna Mikhailovna stopped to catch up with Pierre.
Ah, mon ami! - she said with the same gesture as in the morning with her son, touching his hand: - croyez, que je souffre autant, que vous, mais soyez homme. [Believe me, I suffer no less than you, but be a man.]
- Right, I'll go? asked Pierre, looking affectionately through his spectacles at Anna Mikhailovna.
- Ah, mon ami, oubliez les torts qu "on a pu avoir envers vous, pensez que c" est votre pere ... peut etre al "agonie." She sighed. - Je vous ai tout de suite aime comme mon fils. Fiez vous a moi, Pierre. Je n "oublirai pas vos interets. [Forget, my friend, what was wrong against you. Remember that this is your father... Maybe in agony. I immediately fell in love with you like a son. Trust me, Pierre. I will not forget your interests.]
Pierre did not understand; again it seemed to him even more strongly that all this must be so, and he obediently followed Anna Mikhaylovna, who had already opened the door.
The door opened into the back entrance. In the corner sat an old servant of the princesses and knitted a stocking. Pierre had never been in this half, did not even imagine the existence of such chambers. Anna Mikhailovna asked the girl who overtook them, with a decanter on a tray (calling her sweetheart and dove) about the health of the princesses and dragged Pierre further along the stone corridor. From the corridor, the first door to the left led to the living rooms of the princesses. The maid, with a decanter, in a hurry (as everything was done in a hurry at that moment in this house) did not close the door, and Pierre and Anna Mikhailovna, passing by, involuntarily looked into the room where, talking, the elder princess and Prince Vasily. Seeing the passersby, Prince Vasily made an impatient movement and leaned back; the princess jumped up and with a desperate gesture slammed the door with all her might, shutting it.
This gesture was so unlike the princess’s usual calmness, the fear expressed on the face of Prince Vasily was so unusual for his importance that Pierre, stopping, inquiringly, through his glasses, looked at his leader.
Anna Mikhailovna did not express surprise, she only smiled slightly and sighed, as if to show that she had expected all this.
- Soyez homme, mon ami, c "est moi qui veillerai a vos interets, [Be a man, my friend, I will look after your interests.] - she said in response to his look and went even faster down the corridor.
Pierre did not understand what was the matter, and even less what it meant veiller a vos interets, [observe your interests,] but he understood that all this should be so. They went down a corridor into a dimly lit hall that adjoined the count's waiting room. It was one of those cold and luxurious rooms that Pierre knew from the front porch. But even in this room, in the middle, there was an empty bathtub and water had been spilled over the carpet. To meet them on tiptoe, paying no attention to them, a servant and a clerk with a censer. They entered the reception room, familiar to Pierre, with two Italian windows, access to the winter garden, with a large bust and a full-length portrait of Catherine. All the same people, in almost the same positions, sat whispering in the waiting room. Everyone, falling silent, looked back at Anna Mikhailovna, who had come in, with her weepy, pale face, and at the fat, big Pierre, who, with lowered head, meekly followed her.
Anna Mikhailovna's face expressed the consciousness that the decisive moment had arrived; she, with the receptions of a businesslike Petersburg lady, entered the room, not letting go of Pierre, even bolder than in the morning. She felt that since she was leading the one whom she wanted to see dying, her reception was assured. With a quick glance at everyone in the room, and noticing the count's confessor, she, not only bending over, but suddenly becoming smaller, swam up to the confessor with a shallow amble and respectfully accepted the blessing of one, then another clergyman.
“Thank God that we had time,” she said to the clergyman, “all of us, relatives, were so afraid. This young man is the son of a count,” she added more quietly. - Terrible moment!
Having spoken these words, she approached the doctor.
“Cher docteur,” she told him, “ce jeune homme est le fils du comte ... y a t il de l "espoir? [this young man is the son of a count ... Is there any hope?]
The doctor silently, with a quick movement, raised his eyes and shoulders. Anna Mikhailovna raised her shoulders and eyes with exactly the same movement, almost closing them, sighed and moved away from the doctor to Pierre. She turned especially respectfully and tenderly sadly to Pierre.
- Ayez confiance en Sa misericorde, [Trust in His mercy,] - she said to him, showing him a sofa to sit down to wait for her, she silently went to the door at which everyone was looking, and following the barely audible sound of this door she disappeared behind her.
Pierre, deciding to obey his leader in everything, went to the sofa, which she pointed out to him. As soon as Anna Mikhaylovna disappeared, he noticed that the eyes of everyone in the room were fixed on him with more than curiosity and sympathy. He noticed that everyone was whispering, pointing at him with eyes, as if with fear and even servility. He was shown respect that had never been shown before: a lady unknown to him, who spoke with clerics, got up from her seat and invited him to sit down, the adjutant picked up the glove dropped by Pierre and gave it to him; the doctors fell silent respectfully as he passed them, and stepped aside to make room for him. Pierre wanted to first sit down in another place, so as not to embarrass the lady, he wanted to pick up his glove himself and go around the doctors, who did not even stand on the road; but he suddenly felt that it would be indecent, he felt that on this night he was a person who was obliged to perform some kind of terrible and expected by all ceremony, and that therefore he had to accept services from everyone. He silently accepted the adjutant's glove, sat down in the lady's place, placing his large hands on symmetrically exposed knees, in the naive pose of an Egyptian statue, and decided to himself that all this should be exactly like that and that he should not to get lost and not to do stupid things, one should not act according to one’s own considerations, but one must leave oneself completely to the will of those who led him.
Less than two minutes later, Prince Vasily, in his caftan with three stars, majestically, carrying his head high, entered the room. He seemed thinner in the morning; his eyes were larger than usual when he looked around the room and saw Pierre. He went up to him, took his hand (which he had never done before) and pulled it down, as if he wanted to test whether it was holding tight.
Courage, courage, mon ami. Il a demande a vous voir. C "est bien ... [Do not lose heart, do not lose heart, my friend. He wished to see you. It's good ...] - and he wanted to go.
But Pierre saw fit to ask:
- How is your health…
He hesitated, not knowing whether it was proper to call a dying man an earl; it was ashamed to call him a father.
- Il a eu encore un coup, il y a une demi heure. There was another hit. Courage, mon ami… [He had another stroke half an hour ago. Cheer up, my friend…]
Pierre was in such a state of vagueness of thought that at the word "blow" he imagined a blow from some body. He, perplexed, looked at Prince Vasily and only then realized that the disease was called a blow. Prince Vasily said a few words to Lorrain as he walked, and went through the door on tiptoe. He could not walk on tiptoe and jumped awkwardly with his whole body. The eldest princess followed him, then the clergy and clerks passed, the people (servants) also went through the door. Movement was heard behind this door, and finally, still with the same pale, but firm face in the performance of duty, Anna Mikhailovna ran out and, touching Pierre's hand, said:
– La bonte divine est inepuisable. C "est la ceremonie de l" extreme onction qui va commencer. Venez. [The mercy of God is inexhaustible. The assembly will begin now. Let's go.]

(1714-1787) German composer

Gluck is often called the reformer of opera, which is true: after all, he created a new genre of musical tragedy and wrote monumental operatic works that were very different from what was created before him. Although formally referred to as a composer of the Viennese classical school, Gluck influenced the development of English, French and Italian musical art.

The composer came from a family of hereditary foresters who led a nomadic life, constantly moving from place to place. Gluck was born in the town of Erasbach, where at that time his father served on the estate of Prince Lobkowitz.

Gluck Sr. had no doubt that Christoph would follow in his footsteps, and was very upset when it turned out that the boy was more interested in music. In addition, he showed remarkable musical abilities. Soon he began to study singing, as well as playing the organ, piano and violin. These lessons were given to Gluck by the musician and composer B. Chernogorsky who worked on the estate. Since 1726, Christophe sang in the church choir of the Jesuit church in Komotaui while studying at the Jesuit school. Then, together with B. Chernogorsky, he went to Prague, where he continued his musical studies. The father never forgave his son for his betrayal and refused to help him, so Christophe had to earn a living on his own. He worked as a chorister and organist in various churches.

In 1731, Gluck began to study at the philosophical faculty of the university and at the same time compose music. Improving his skills, he continues to take lessons from Montenegrin.

In the spring of 1735, the young man ends up in Vienna, where he meets the Lombard prince Melzi. He invites Gluck to work in his home orchestra and takes him with him to Milan.

Gluck stayed in Milan from 1737 to 1741. Acting as a house musician in the Melzi family chapel, he simultaneously studied the basics of composition with the Italian composer G. B. Sammartini. With his help, he masters a new Italian style of music instrumentation. The fruit of this collaboration was six trios of sonatas, published in London in 1746.

Gluck's first success as an opera composer came in 1741, when his first opera Artaxerxes was staged in Milan. Since then, the composer has created one or even several honors every year, which are staged with constant success on the stage of the Milan theater and in other cities of Italy. In 1742 he wrote two operas - "Demetrius" and "Demophon", in 1743 one - "Tigran", but in 1744 he created four at once - "Sofonis-ba", "Hypermnestra", "Arzache" and "Poro ”, and in 1745 another one - “Phaedra”.

Unfortunately, the fate of Gluck's first works turned out to be sad: only a few fragments of them have survived. But it is known that the talented composer managed to change the tone of traditional Italian operas. He brought energy and dynamism to them and at the same time retained the passion and lyricism inherent in Italian music.

In 1745, at the invitation of Lord Middlesex, director of the Italian opera at the Haymarket Theatre, Gluck moved to London. There he met with Handel, who was then the most popular opera composer in England, and they arranged a kind of creative competition among themselves.

On March 25, 1746, they gave a joint concert at the Hay Market Theatre, which presented Gluck's compositions and Handel's organ concerto, performed by the composer himself. True, relations between them remained strained. Handel did not recognize Gluck and once ironically remarked: "My cook knows counterpoint better than Gluck." However, Gluck treated Handel quite friendly and found his art divine.

In England, Gluck studied English folk songs, the melodies of which he later used in his work. In January 1746, the premiere of his opera The Fall of the Giants took place, and Gluck instantly became the hero of the day. However, the composer himself did not consider this work of genius. It was a kind of potpourri from his early works. Early ideas were also embodied in Gluck's second opera Artamena, staged in March of the same year. At the same time, the composer directs the Italian opera group Mingotti.

With her, Gluck moves from one European city to another. He writes operas, works with singers, conducts. In 1747, the composer staged the opera "The Wedding of Hercules and Hebe" in Dresden, the next year in Prague he staged two operas at once - "Semiramide Recognized" and "Ezio", and in 1752 - "The Mercy of Titus" in Naples.

Gluck's wanderings ended in Vienna. In 1754 he was appointed to the post of court bandmaster. Then he fell in love with Marianne Pergin, the sixteen-year-old daughter of a wealthy Austrian entrepreneur. True, for some time he has to leave for Copenhagen, where he again composes an opera serenade in connection with the birth of the heir to the Danish throne. But back in Vienna, Gluck immediately marries his beloved. Their marriage was happy, although childless. Gluck later adopted his niece Marianne.

In Vienna, the composer leads a very busy life. He gives concerts every week, performing his arias and symphonies. In the presence of the imperial family, the premiere of his serenade opera, performed in September 1754 at Schlosshof Castle, is brilliant. The composer composes one opera after another, especially since the director of the court theater entrusted him with writing all theatrical and academic music. During a visit to Rome in 1756, Gluck was knighted.

In the late fifties, he suddenly had to change his creative style. From 1758 to 1764 he wrote several comic operas to librettos sent to him from France. In them, Gluck was free from traditional operatic canons and the obligatory use of mythological plots. Using the melodies of French vaudevilles, folk songs, the composer creates bright, cheerful works. True, over time, he abandons the folk basis, preferring a purely comic opera. This is how the composer's original operatic style is gradually formed: a combination of melody rich in nuances and a complex dramatic pattern.

Encyclopedists occupy a special place in Gluck's work. They wrote for him the libretto for the dramatic ballet "Don Giovanni", which was staged in Paris by the famous choreographer J. Noverre. Even earlier, he staged Gluck's ballets The Chinese Prince (1755) and Alexander (1755). From a simple plotless divertissement - an application to the opera - Gluck turned the ballet into a vivid dramatic performance.

Gradually improved and his composing skills. Work in the genre of comic opera, composing ballets, expressive music for the orchestra - all this prepared Gluck to create a new musical genre - musical tragedy.

Together with the Italian poet and playwright R. Calzabidgi, who then lived in Vienna, Gluck created three operas: in 1762 - "Orpheus and Eurydice", later, in 1774, its French version was created; in 1767 - "Alceste", and in 1770 - "Paris and Helena". In them, he refuses cumbersome and noisy music. Attention is focused on the dramatic plot and the experiences of the characters. Each character receives a complete musical description, and the whole opera turns into a single act that captivates the audience. All its parts are strictly commensurate with each other, the overture, according to the composer, as if warns the viewer about the nature of the future action.

Usually, an opera aria looked like a concert number, and the artist only tried to present it to the public in a favorable way. Gluck introduces extensive choruses into the opera, emphasizing the intensity of the action. Each scene acquires completeness, each word of the characters carries a deep content. Of course, Gluck would not have been able to carry out his plans without complete mutual understanding with the librettist. They work together, honing every verse and sometimes every word. Gluck wrote directly that he attributed his success to the fact that professionals worked with him. Previously, he did not attach such importance to the libretto. Now music and content exist in an inseparable whole.

But Gluck's innovations were not recognized by everyone. Fans of Italian opera initially did not accept his operas. Only the Paris Opera dared to stage his works at that time. The first of these is "Iphigenia in Aulis", followed by "Orpheus". Although Gluck has been appointed official court composer, he himself travels to Paris from time to time and follows productions.

However, the French version of "Alceste" was unsuccessful. Gluck falls into depression, which intensifies with the death of his niece, and in 1756 returns to Vienna. His friends and rivals are divided into two opposing parties. Opponents are led by the Italian composer N. Piccinni, who specially comes to Paris to enter into a creative competition with Gluck. It all ends with Gluck completing Artemis, but tearing up the sketches for Roland after learning of Piccinni's intentions.

The war of Glukists and Picchinnists reaches its climax in 1777-1778. In 1779, Gluck created Iphigenia in Tauris, which brought him the greatest stage success, and Piccinni staged Roland in 1778. Moreover, the composers themselves were not at enmity, they were on friendly terms and respected each other. Piccinni even admitted that sometimes, as, for example, in his opera Dido, he relied on some musical principles characteristic of Gluck. But in the autumn of 1779, after the public and critics coolly accepted the premiere of the opera Echo and Narcissus, Gluck left Paris forever. Returning to Vienna, he first felt a slight malaise, and the doctors advised him to stop his active musical activity.

For the last eight years of his life, Gluck lived without a break in Vienna. He revised his old operas, one of them, Iphigenia in Taurida, was staged in 1781 in connection with the visit of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich. In addition, he publishes his odes for voice with piano accompaniment to words by Klopstock. In Vienna, Gluck meets Mozart again, but, as in Paris, friendly relations between them do not arise.

The composer worked until the last days of his life. In the eighties, he had several cerebral hemorrhages one after another, from which he ultimately died, before he could complete the cantata The Last Judgment. His funeral was held in Vienna with a large gathering of people. A kind of monument to Gluck was the premiere of the cantata, which was completed by his student A. Salieri.

Christoph Willibald Gluck (German: Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck, July 2, 1714, Erasbach - November 15, 1787, Vienna) - Austrian composer, mainly opera, one of the largest representatives of musical classicism.

I. Chernyavsky (violin) and S. Kalinin (organ). Performance of a melody from the opera Orpheus and Eurydice (3.56), Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787). Kharkov House of Organ Music, 2008.

The name of Gluck is associated with the reform of the Italian opera seria and French lyrical tragedy in the second half of the 18th century, and if the works of Gluck the composer were not popular at all times, the ideas of Gluck the reformer determined the further development of the opera house.

Born into a forester's family...
Graduated from the Jesuit College ...
He entered the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Prague ...
He took lessons from the Czech composer Boguslav Chernogorsky, sang in the choir of the Church of St. Jacob, played the violin and cello in wandering ensembles ...
Wrote 107 operas...

German composer. The largest opera reformer, a representative of musical classicism. Author of 107 operas. Together with his like-minded poet and playwright Calzabidgi (author of the libretto for a number of Gluck's most important works), Gluck made an attempt to update the opera seria. On this path, Gluck met with fierce resistance from adherents of traditional Italian opera, led by Piccinni.
This artistic controversy has gone down in musical history as a "war of glitchists and picchinnists". The main essence of the reform is the subordination of all means of artistic expression to the dramatic idea, the desire for naturalness. Gluck deepened the role of the orchestra, developed musical scenes, and choirs. His achievements in the field of expression of human feelings cannot be overestimated. He abandoned the naked virtuosity of vocal parts in the name of the expressiveness of the musical image.
The following operas by Gluck are of the greatest reformist significance: Orpheus and Eurydice (1762), Alceste (1767), Paris and Helena (1770, Vienna, lib. Calzabidgi), Iphigenia in Aulis (1774), Armida "(1777)," Iphigenia in Tauris "(1779). Among Gluck's comic operas, An Unforeseen Meeting (1764, Vienna, lib. L. Dancourt) stands out, anticipating in many ways (including in its Eastern Turkish flavor) Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio.
France played an important role in Gluck's life. It was here that a number of his major works were staged, including the 2nd ed. opera "Orpheus and Eurydice" (1774, Paris).
In Russia, the composer's work has always aroused interest. His operas were repeatedly staged on the Russian stage. The production of the opera Orpheus and Eurydice in 1868 (Mariinsky Theater) was listened to by Berlioz, who gave an enthusiastic review of the performance. The production of the same opera at the Mariinsky Theater in 1911 (director Meyerhold, designer A. Golovin, conductor Napravnik, Sobinov performed the part of Orpheus) is recognized as historical. We also note the production of the opera Iphigenia in Aulis (1983, conductor Ermler) at the Bolshoi Theater.
The discography of Gluck's operas is quite extensive. The leading role in this area certainly belongs to the English conductor Gardiner, who recorded with the orchestra of the Lyon Opera and the Monteverdi Choir a number of the composer's most significant works.
E. Tsodokov

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Biography GLUCK Christoph Willibald (1714-87) was a German composer. One of the most prominent representatives of classicism. Christoph Willibald Gluck was born in the family of a forester, was passionate about music from childhood, and since his father did not want to see his eldest son as a musician, Gluck, after graduating from the Jesuit college in Commotau, left home as a teenager.

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Biography At the age of 14, he left his family, wandered, earning money by playing the violin and singing, then in 1731 he entered the University of Prague. During his studies (1731-34) he served as a church organist. In 1735 he moved to Vienna, then to Milan, where he studied with the composer G. B. Sammartini (c. 1700-1775), one of the largest Italian representatives of early classicism.

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Gluck's first opera, Artaxerxes, was staged in Milan in 1741; this was followed by the premieres of several more operas in different cities of Italy. In 1845 Gluck was commissioned to compose two operas for London; in England he met H. F. Handel. In 1846-51 he worked in Hamburg, Dresden, Copenhagen, Naples, Prague.

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In 1752 he settled in Vienna, where he took the position of concertmaster, then bandmaster at the court of Prince J. Saxe-Hildburghausen. In addition, he composed French comic operas for the imperial court theater and Italian operas for palace amusements. In 1759, Gluck received an official position in the court theater and soon received a royal pension.

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A Fruitful Collaboration About 1761, Gluck began collaborating with the poet R. Calzabidgi and the choreographer G. Angiolini (1731-1803). In their first joint work, the ballet Don Giovanni, they managed to achieve an amazing artistic unity of all components of the performance. A year later, the opera Orpheus and Eurydice appeared (libretto by Calzabidgi, dances staged by Angiolini) - the first and best of Gluck's so-called reformist operas.

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In 1764, Gluck composed the French comic opera An Unforeseen Meeting, or The Pilgrims from Mecca, and a year later, two more ballets. In 1767 the success of "Orpheus" was confirmed by the opera "Alceste" also on the libretto of Calzabidgi, but with dances staged by another outstanding choreographer - J.-J. Noverre (1727-1810). The third reformist opera Paris and Helena (1770) was a more modest success.

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In Paris In the early 1770s, Gluck decided to apply his innovative ideas to French opera. In 1774, Iphigenia at Aulis and Orpheus, the French version of Orpheus and Eurydice, were staged in Paris. Both works received enthusiastic reception. Gluck's series of Parisian successes was continued by the French edition of Alceste (1776) and Armide (1777).

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The last work was the occasion for a fierce controversy between the "glukists" and supporters of traditional Italian and French opera, which was personified by the talented composer of the Neapolitan school N. Piccinni, who arrived in Paris in 1776 at the invitation of Gluck's opponents. Gluck's victory in this controversy was marked by the triumph of his opera Iphigenia in Tauris (1779) (however, the opera Echo and Narcissus, staged in the same year, failed).

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In the last years of his life, Gluck made a German version of Iphigenia in Tauris and composed several songs. His last work was the psalm De profundis for choir and orchestra, which was performed under the baton of A. Salieri at Gluck's funeral.

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Gluck's contribution In total, Gluck wrote about 40 operas - Italian and French, comic and serious, traditional and innovative. It was thanks to the latter that he secured a firm place in the history of music. The principles of Gluck's reform are outlined in his preface to the edition of the score of "Alcesta" (probably written with the participation of Calzabidgi).

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Last years On September 24, 1779, the premiere of Gluck's last opera, Echo and Narcissus, took place in Paris; however, even earlier, in July, the composer was struck by a serious illness that turned into partial paralysis. In the autumn of the same year, Gluck returned to Vienna, which he never left. Arminius", but these plans were not destined to come true [. Anticipating his imminent departure, approximately in 1782, Gluck wrote "De profundis" - a small work for a four-part choir and orchestra on the text of the 129th psalm, which was performed on November 17, 1787 at the composer's funeral by his student and follower Antonio Salieri. The composer died on November 15, 1787 and was originally buried in the church cemetery of the Matzlinesdorf suburb; later his ashes were transferred to the Vienna Central Cemetery[

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