Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Orfeo ed Euridice
Orfeo ed Euridice is Gluck’s most famous opera. It is about a man named Orfeo, who loses his wife, Euridice and longs to bring her back. He goes to the gods, and the goddess of love, Amor, tells Orfeo that he can bring back his wife from where she is held in Hades. But he must first calm the spirits of the dead and refuse to look at her, or she will once again die. In front of the gates of Hades, Orfeo calms the spirits with his songs of sorrow, and finds Euridice. On their way back to earth, Euridice fears that Orfeo had lost his affections for her because he wouldn't look at her.  Euridice appeals to him to remember his love for her, and when he looks at her, she dies. Then, Amor appears and gives Euridice back to Orfeo because of the troubles he went through, the two are pleased and give thanks to the gods.



Alceste


Alceste, is second to Gluck’s three reform operas, this version known to be much simpler and more human in contrast to the one written by Lully and Quinault. Gluck had collaborated with Ranieri de’ Calzabigi, with the choreography by Noverre. In the Opera, Admeto, king of Pherae in Thessaly, is on his deathbed. Alceste prays to Apollo, and he reveals that Admeto will die on that day, unless someone takes his place, Alceste offers herself. Admeto recovers, rejoined with his wife, who reveals the offer she has made in turn for his life. As Alceste dies, Admeto tries to kill himself, but reminded of his duties as king, he stays alive. Alceste appears above with Apollo, who allows her to return to her husband.



Paride ed Elena
Paride ed Elena is Gluck’s third and final reform opera for Vienna, also being the least performed of the three (with Orfeo ed Euridice and Alceste). Paride is in Sparta, sacrificing to Venus and seeking, now with the encouragement of Erasto (Cupid) the love of Elena. Each are struck by each other’s beauty when Paride is called to meet with Elena at her royal palace. When asked to sing, Paride does so in praise of her beauty, admitting the purpose of his visit is to win her love. She rejects him. And in despair, Paride now pleads with her. Eventually, through the intervention of Erasto, Elena gives way. But Pallas Athene warns them of the sadness to come.



Giovanni Battista Sammartini

Giovanni Battista Sammartini was also a composer, and he had taught counterpoint composition to Gluck while Gluck was a chamber musician for the Melzi household in Milan. Sammartini had been on other composers as well as Gluck, such as Johann Christian Bach, and Luigi Boccherini. He lived his entire life in Milan and was that city’s most famous composer. Even though he wrote mostly Chamber music with only three operas and a few arias, he was still a great influence on Gluck.




Iphigenia en Aulide

In a Greek war against Troy, King Agamemnon of Mycenae gathers the Greek fleet in Aulis. But since he has offended the goddess Diana, she causes the wind to drop, becalming the war ships. Priest Calchas announces that Diana will not send any wind unless Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter, Iphigenia, to her.
Iphigenia’s soon to be husband Achilles opposes the plan to sacrifice her, but Agamemnon is torn. When war hungry citizens demand the sacrifice, Iphigenia accepts her fate. The goddess Diana transports Iphigenia to Tauris and releases her completely from her service, so Achilles and Iphigenia marry.



Echo et Narcisse

Gluck experienced his first stroke during one of the rehearsals of Echo et Narcisse. In Echo et Narcisse, Echo is loved by both Narcisse and Apollo. Apollo puts a spell on Narcisse so he falls in love with his own reflection. At Echo and Narcisse’s wedding, Echo suspects him of infidelity when she sees him gazing into the water of a fountain. Echo is near death, and Apollo brings Narcisse back to his senses in time to hear her death lamented. Now Narcisse feels great remorse and is about to kill himself when Echo returns with restored life. Echo et Narcisse was Gluck’s last opera that had gained no success, and was even a failure. Even after Gluck had revised the opera two more times, they either didn't make it through the entire opera, or it was never spoken of.


Maria Anna Bergin

Maria Anna Bergin was Gluck’s wife. Maria was 18, and the daughter of a wealthy merchant and banker; Gluck was an internationally known composer, and 36. It is not known how and where they met,  but they certainly were in love. Though Gluck’s engagement to Maria was opposed by her father, because there was a rather substantial age difference between the two, and it was clear that Maria was going to inherit all of her father’s money. Gluck and Maria married on September 15th, 1750, and lived with Maria’s mother. The union was a happy one, Maria took a personal interest in all of Gluck's artistic plans and achievements. She remained devoted to Gluck until the end of his life.



Le Cinesi
Lisinga and her two friends, Tangia and Sivene, want to perform for Lisinga’s brother, Silango, after he has returned from Europe. To entertain him, they perform arias in contrasting styles. Lisinga sings a tragic scene as the character of Andromache. Silango and Sivene sing a pastoral duet as shepherdess and shepherd (the two have feelings for each other. Tangia, envious of Silango’s love for Sivene, sings a comic aria that pokes fun at a young Persian dandy, indirectly deriding Sivene. All of the characters then agree that each aria has its drawbacks, and the opera concludes with a ballet.



Painting

This is the “featured” painting of Gluck, titled Christoph Willibald Gluck. Featured meaning that members of the community have identified as one of the finest images in the English Wikipedia. This was painted by Joseph-Siffrein Duplessis, a French portrait painter, in 1775. The painting is now held on display at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria.



Alexander Johannes
Gluck had very early manifested a love for music, but his parents were poor and could not afford the instruments or musical instruction. His father, Alexander Johannes, wanted him to become a forester like him and made every effort to make Gluck follow in his footsteps. As he got older, and his passion for music got stronger, Gluck made astounding progress and was able to play several instruments. Gluck later wrote “My whole being became obsessed with music and I left all thoughts of a forester’s life behind”.

http://www.greatmusicleaders.org/home/christoph_willibald_gluck
Posted by at No comments:

Monday, November 9, 2015

  1. Tell me about the place and time you lived
     I was born on July 2nd 1714 in Erasbach, Germany. But in 1717 my family and I moved to Bohemia, between 1722 and 1727 my family had lived near Bohmisch-Kamnitz, and then after that, until 1736, we lived in Eisenberg. My parents were Alexander Johannes Gluck and Maria Walburga Gluck, my father was the master forester to Prince Philipp Hyazinth von Lobkowitz.
     I was alive during the Enlightenment Period- The age of reason and new ways of thinking. During this time, Frederick II “the great” was crowned king of Prussia in 1740. In 1751, the first Encyclopedia was published by Voltaire, Rousseau Diderot, and d’Alembert. The Seven Years War began in 1756, where Britain and Prussia had defeated France, Spain, Austria, and Russia. The Industrial Revolution began in England in 1760.
     Around 1727 I had left my home and move to Prague, I played in several churches and began university work while still continuing my musical studies. Then in the winter of 1735-36 I moved to Vienna, then to Milan; Where I studied composition with Giovanni Battista Sammartini and created many sonatas. From 1745-1746 I lived in England and created many operas and had some help from a few other great musicians such as A.F Vanneschi and George Frideric Handel, making many operas.   


2. What events in your early life made you get interested in the arts?
    From the time I was 12 until I was 18, I attended the Jesuit School of Kommotau, where I had music lessons as well as a good general education. I was also introduced to music by way of the church choir when I was younger.

    My father had repeatedly tried to derail my attempts to play musical instruments by having me assist him in the hunt, so he obviously was not very supportive. But when I was about 13, I escaped my home and moved to Prague, where I continued my musical studies, mostly self-taught.

    I loved music, particularly opera, I guess you could say that my interest in and love for music had been with me since I was born.








3. What role did mentors play in helping you develop the interests and talents you have as an artist?
    One of my mentors was Giovanni Battista Sammartini, whom I had met while I was in Milan. Along with fulfilling my duties in the Melzi family chapel as a chamber musician, I was also studying composition with Giovanni Battista Sammartini. Sammartini was an italian organist and composer.

    From Sammartini I learned the new Italian style of music, and together we created six trio sonatas, each consisting of two movements with a minuet as conclusion, along with other trio sonatas. He didn’t necessarily help develop my interests in arts, but he sure did help my artistic growth and knowledge.


4. What was the world of art like in your particular art field when you entered it?
    To me, the Italian model had become repetitive and stale. It’s elaborate vocal style, stock characters, meager storylines, and antiquated standards, all no longer appealed to me; I set out to reform opera as it was then known.

    When I had first started creating operas and taking classes in Milan, Baroque opera, or more specifically, high Baroque, was very popular. Great musicians such as George Frideric Handel had used this style in the operas Partenope, Orlando, Alcina, and many more.
In Baroque style music, melodies tend to be longer and more complex, with sudden rather than gradual dynamic changes, abstract lyricism, little stylistic unity, and a great range of rhythmical and melodical possibilities.


5. How did the major cultural, economic, and political situations of the time impact your work?
     My opera La caduta de’ giganti had glorified the Duke of Cumberland, after his victory at Culloden over the forces of Prince Charles Edward. My opera-serenade La contesa dei Numi was composed in celebration of the birth of the heir to the Danish throne. My libretto for Orfeo ed Euridice was partly based on the theories and practices of D.Diderot, F.M. von Grimm, Voltaire, and Rousseau (my first reformist opera).

My operas were named in the category of ‘reform’ operas, which in fact goes deeper than the style of the opera itself. Most of them express ideals and theories of the late Enlightenment.






6. What were your major accomplishments and the methods you used in your art?
         Since the Baroque period was a time for new ways of artistic and musical composition, composers were more open to experimentation and improvisation. So many of my works were “reformist” operas that parted ways from the original Italian model and began to focus on the dramatic structure opera could provide, Baroque operas.
     My techniques focus on dramatizing the music with sudden dynamics and constant rhythms and/or the events taking place. I was trying to bring up to the stage what true opera should be like, without the repeated jokes and the same characters that had become stereotypical because of how often they were being used.


7. What were the key opportunities you had that led to turning points in your life and art?
    When I was in Vienna in the winter of 1735-1736, I was discovered by Prince Melzi, an ardent lover of music, who accompanied me to Milan. In Milan, I played as a chamber musician for the family chapel. And while doing that, I was studying composition with Giovanni Battista Sammartini, together we made many operas.

Before then I had musical studies under Czernohorsky and maintained myself by performing at village fairs and dances in Prague. So from just by doing those things I didn't have very many musical opportunities. But with the help of Giovanni Battista Sammartini, I was making operas at rapid speeds for the public, forming only the beginning of my musical career.

    In 1746, I got an opportunity to compose an opera for Dresden for the royal wedding between the Bavaria and Saxony families. The success of my work brought me to the attention of the Viennese court.

8. What hardships or roadblocks did you have to overcome in order to become an artist?
As I was growing up my father did not agree with the musical side of me, and constantly tried to pull me away from it by having me join him on the hunt. But that was but one of the hardships I had faced during my career.

    Some people would say that at the time I was in England, I was a rather less than ordinary producer of Italian opera. And I had learned that arias which in their original setting had been applauded lost all effect when new words had been put into the Pasticcio. Lastly, my music style had been criticized by many people who still preferred traditional Italian style, so at times, it had been quite hard for me to try and win them over.


9. What personal stories or anecdotes best illustrates how you became successful in the arts?
    When I was younger, the violoncello had attracted me, and I began to teach myself to play without any other help besides an old instruction book. Before long I had made sufficient progress which enabled me to join a troop of traveling minstrels, and from Prague we made our way to Vienna.

    While this story was not a direct lead to my success in music, it led me to Vienna. And there I had been discovered by Prince Melzi, who had me work for him in his family chapel as a chamber musician; then work with Giovanni Battista Sammartini, with whom I made many successful operas.

    So you see, if I had not taught myself to play that violoncello, I might not have been successful in music.


10. How did your work impact the world of art?
    It is said to be that I had been a “regenerator of opera”. While rather composing the stale and repetitive Italian model, I looked to bring out the dramatic qualities opera could provide.

I had challenged the old Italian ways of opera, and started an age of newly reformed baroque operas. And with Orfeo ed Euridice, from then on I absorbed and transcended the spirit of the age of reform in which I had begun.
    



    


 
    
    

 Bibliography







Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)