Opera Scotland

Christoph Willibald Gluck Suggest updates

Christoph Willibald von Gluck

Born Erasbach, Berching, 2 July 1714.

Died Vienna, 15 November 1787.

German composer.

Gluck is remembered largely for a handful of famous 'reform' operas, composed in Paris towards the end of his life. From the substantial list below, it can be seen that he had a lengthy career before then, in which he worked his way around Europe, composing operas in the popular opera seria format. He even spent some time (1746) working in London, though not with any great success. Following the successful revival of many of the operas by Handel, Vivaldi and others, attention is gradually moving towards Gluck, and it will be interesting to see whether any of these earlier works return to the repertoire.

Operas performed in Scotland are shown in bold:

01   Artaserse (Milan 1741) (Metastasio)

02   Demetrio, o Cleonice (Venice 1742) (Metastasio)

03   Demofoonte (Milan 1742) (Metastasio)

04   Il Tigrane (Crema 1743) (Goldoni)

05   La Sofonisba, o Siface (Milan 1744) (Metastasio, rev Silvani)

06   Ipermestra (Venice 1744) (Metastasio)

07   Poro, o Alessandro nelle Indie (Turin 1744) (Metastasio)

08   Ippolito (Milan 1745) (Corio)

09   La caduta de'giganti (London 1746) (Vanneschi) (largely lost)

10   Artamene (London 1746) (Vitturi, rev Venneschi) (largely lost)

11   Le nozze d'Ercole e d'Ebe (Dresden 1747) (anon)

12   La Semiramide riconosciuta (Vienna 1748) (Metastasio)

13   La contesa (Copenhagen 1749) (Metastasio)

14   Ezio I (Prague 1750) (Metastasio)

15   Issipile (Prague 1752) (Metastasio)

16   La clemenza di Tito (Naples 1752) (Metastasio)

17   Le cinesi (Vienna 1754) (Metastasio)

18   La danza (Vienna 1755) (Metastasio)

19   L'innocenza giustificata (Vienna 1755, rev 1768 as 'La vestale') (Metastasio, rev Durazzo)

20   Les amours champêtres () ()

21   Antigono (Rome 1756) (Metastasio)

22   Il rè pastore (Vienna 1756) (Metastasio)

23   Les Chinois poli en France () ()

24   La fausse esclave (Vienna 1758) (Anseaume & de Marcouville)

25   L'île de Merlin, ou Le monde renversé (Vienna 1758) (Anseaume)

26   La Cythère assiégée (Vienna 1759, rev Paris 1775) (Favart)

27   Le diable à quatre, ou La double métamorphose (Vienna 1759) (Sedaine & Baurans)

28   L'arbre enchanté, ou Le tuteur dupé (Vienna 1759) (Vadé)

29   L'Ivrogne corrigé, ou Le mariage du diable (Vienna 1760) (Anseaume & Sarterre, rev Favart)

30   Tetide (Vienna 1760) (Migliavacca)

31   Le cadi dupé (Vienna 1761) (lemonnier) 

32   Orfeo ed Euridice (Vienna 1762, rev Paris 1774) (Calzabigi, rev Moline)

33   Il trionfo di Clelia (Bologna 1763) (Metastasio)

34   Ezio II (Vienna 1760) (Metastasio)

35   Le rencontre imprévue (Vienna 1764) (Dancourt & Durazzo)

36   Il Parnaso confuso (Vienna 1765) (Metastasio)

37   Il Telemaco, o l'isola di Circe (Vienna 1765) (Capeci, rev Coltellini)

38   La corona (1765 unperf) (Metastasio)

39   Il prologo (Florence 1767) (del Rosso)

40   Alceste (Vienna 1767, rev Paris 1776) (Calzabigi, rev du Roullet)

41   Le feste d'Apollo (Parma 1769) (Frugoni, Calzabigi, Pagnini & Pezzana)

42   Paride ed Elena (Vienna 1770) (Calzabigi)

43   Iphigénie en Aulide (Paris 1774) (du Roullet)

44   Armide (Paris 1777) (Quinault)

45   Iphigénie en Tauride (Paris 1779) (Guillard)

46   Echo et Narcisse (Paris 1779) (Tschudi)