Christoph Willibald Gluck (jan 1, 1714 – jan 1, 1787)

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Although mostly opposed to the style and attitudes of Piccinni's masterpiece of sentimental comedy, Gluck's reform oepras embodied a similar infusion of sensibility. He too wanted his operas to be natural and true to real life. Famous for declaring that when composign he tried to forget that he was a musician, he strove to avoid the sort of decorative musicality and virtuosity that called attention to itself--and away from teh drama. The implicit target of Gluck's reform was the Metastasian opera seria with all its dazzling artifices.

But where Piccinni sought to replace opera's artiifces with the new sensibilities of the sentimental novel, Gluck sought to return to the most ancient ideals, as then understood.

Gluck's reform was partly a process of elimination.

Gluck's reform was aimed in the opposite direction to Piccini's: It was sto be a reassertion of the aristocratic values that the recent opera seria had diluted with singerlyu excess, the values that opera buffa derided.

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