It was said that it was Gluck’s ‘reform’d Librettist’ Ranieri Calzabigi who actually wrote the famous ‘Preface to Alceste’ (1767) which outlin’d ‘an opera according to the Reform’d Plan’ which was then sign’d by Gluck himself. The ‘reforms’ included adding and expanding the role of choral interludes as well as not inserting ‘irrelevant’ separate ballets that had nothing to do with the plot of the opera itself (an Opera about say, about Julius Caesar would often have a 20-minute ballet inserted between Act I and II for example a dramatically irrelevant different story say, of Orpheus & Eurydice, etc.) and cut down the number of characters appearing on the stage at once - usually to about 3 or 4-except in the finales-whereas by the 1740s, you might see 8 or 9 characters at once appearing in the same scene which de-focus’d audiences away from the ‘dramatic import of any given scene’ … Reform for Calzabigi & Gluck also meant the removal of ‘recitativi secci’ (long boring stretches of narrative accompanied only by a harpsichord, cello & sometimes a giant long-neck’d lute (a Theorbo) - and replac’d by ‘more melodick & dramatics’ recitativi accompagnati where a string body (often with a wind instrumental-accompaniment) replac’d the secci seamlessly - at any rate composers were forever complaining that people in the boxes would talk and gamble right through them, and rarely paid attention to ‘their long stretches of story line’ … What’s curious about ‘Reform’d Opera after ‘Alceste’ was given in Vienna in 1767 is that not ev’rybody ‘jump’d on board at once’ - Mozart for example was still writing (or overseeing) secci-recitativi in his final opera ‘La Clemenza di Tito’ -though in that case it might have been an expedient due to lack of time to compose two acts of the newly-condensed Metastasio libretto by Mazzola-most of the secci recitativi were given to Suessmayr his copiest-pupil in 1791 to compose as ‘exercises’ - but several of them were completely re-written by M. himself later… Composers like Ferdinando Bertoni (1723-1813) quickly adopted Gluck’s reforms after 1771 and of course one cannot underestimate the influence Gluck had on the young Mozart (1762-1772) - even Leopold Mozart wrote to his landlord-lender Hagenauer back in Salzburg about taking his wife & children to see the opening week of Gluck’s Orfeo in Vienna in October 1762- ‘We arriv’d safe and sound through the Vienna gates at 4 on the dot and went at once to the Opera…’ - Leopold Mozart wasted no time in exposing his two brilliant young geniuses to the ‘cutting edge’ of musical taste at the time…personified by Gluck and his trusty librettist …
What begins as a revelatory, informative documentary piece about why Gluck is innovative and important quickly loses interest in itself and becomes (1) an advertisement for this production and (2) a garden variety breakdown of the drama.
When you ask people to name famous composers they often say: Bach, Haendel, Mozart, Beethoven, etc. But what is about Gluck? I think Gluck's music should be presented more often to the audience. His melodies are timeless.
Opera reform was performed by Tommaso Traetta (1727 - 1779) Sofonisba 1761. To judge from the general stylistic influence in terms of grand scenic effects, and from some specific musical borrowings, Traetta had access in Parma to copies and reports of Rameau's operas. To their influence, Traetta added some ingredients of his own, especially a feeling for dramatic colour, in the shape of his melodies and his use of the orchestra. The result was a combination of Italian, French and German elements, which even anticipate the Sturm und Drang movement that was to flourish a few years later, further North. The first fruit of this francophilia was the opera Traetta wrote in 1759. Ippolito ed Aricia owes a lot to Rameau's great tragédie lyrique of 1733, Hippolyte et Aricie. But Traetta's is no mere translation of Rameau. Equipped with the highest degree of dramatic genius, full of vigor in the expression of passionate feelings, daring in the modulations and more inclined of the Italian musicians of his time to make use of the chromatic harmony of the German school, Traetta seems to have conceived theater music from the point of view from which Gluck arose a few years later, apart from the diversity in the melodic tendencies which are more evident in the works of the Italian composer. In the pathetic, Traetta sometimes reaches the sublime, as can be seen in the air of Semiramide which was inserted in the Methode de chant du conservatoire de Paris. Sometimes he forgot that the taste of his compatriots then rejected these energetic accents, and that they preferred pure melody to divide their attention between melody and harmony, but when he perceived in his audience the fatigue of this attention, during the first masses on stage, in which he sat at the harpsichord, he used to turn to the spectators saying: "Gentlemen, take care of this step", and the audience almost always applauded this naive expression of pride of the artist.
“It’s not a homosexual kind of thing…” 29:17. Funny how, during that era, you had to always use that caveat when talking about same sex love, so as not to ruin your career or be seen as queer.
Very nice documentary in parts, but I would have really appreciated much more about Gluck's life and his opera reforms and not so much focus on Iphegenie. Way too much time being spent on that one opera alone. Forward motion of the documentary is lost and the whole thing becomes stagnant.
Thank you! I'm related to "Gluck" and I always love seeing people talk about him and his amazing works!
It was said that it was Gluck’s ‘reform’d Librettist’ Ranieri Calzabigi who actually wrote the famous ‘Preface to Alceste’ (1767) which outlin’d ‘an opera according to the Reform’d Plan’ which was then sign’d by Gluck himself.
The ‘reforms’ included adding and expanding the role of choral interludes as well as not inserting ‘irrelevant’ separate ballets that had nothing to do with the plot of the opera itself (an Opera about say, about Julius Caesar would often have a 20-minute ballet inserted between Act I and II for example a dramatically irrelevant different story say, of Orpheus & Eurydice, etc.) and cut down the number of characters appearing on the stage at once - usually to about 3 or 4-except in the finales-whereas by the 1740s, you might see 8 or 9 characters at once appearing in the same scene which de-focus’d audiences away from the ‘dramatic import of any given scene’ …
Reform for Calzabigi & Gluck also meant the removal of ‘recitativi secci’ (long boring stretches of narrative accompanied only by a harpsichord, cello & sometimes a giant long-neck’d lute (a Theorbo) - and replac’d by ‘more melodick & dramatics’ recitativi accompagnati where a string body (often with a wind instrumental-accompaniment) replac’d the secci seamlessly - at any rate composers were forever complaining that people in the boxes would talk and gamble right through them, and rarely paid attention to ‘their long stretches of story line’ …
What’s curious about ‘Reform’d Opera after ‘Alceste’ was given in Vienna in 1767 is that not ev’rybody ‘jump’d on board at once’ - Mozart for example was still writing (or overseeing) secci-recitativi in his final opera ‘La Clemenza di Tito’ -though in that case it might have been an expedient due to lack of time to compose two acts of the newly-condensed Metastasio libretto by Mazzola-most of the secci recitativi were given to Suessmayr his copiest-pupil in 1791 to compose as ‘exercises’ - but several of them were completely re-written by M. himself later…
Composers like Ferdinando Bertoni (1723-1813) quickly adopted Gluck’s reforms after 1771 and of course one cannot underestimate the influence Gluck had on the young Mozart (1762-1772) - even Leopold Mozart wrote to his landlord-lender Hagenauer back in Salzburg about taking his wife & children to see the opening week of Gluck’s Orfeo in Vienna in October 1762-
‘We arriv’d safe and sound through the Vienna gates at 4 on the dot and went at once to the Opera…’ - Leopold Mozart wasted no time in exposing his two brilliant young geniuses to the ‘cutting edge’ of musical taste at the time…personified by Gluck and his trusty librettist …
What begins as a revelatory, informative documentary piece about why Gluck is innovative and important quickly loses interest in itself and becomes (1) an advertisement for this production and (2) a garden variety breakdown of the drama.
Love the comments of Claus Guth here - so sharp and sensitive to what is going on in the depths of Gluck's musical-dramatical text ...!
This man inspired Haydn, Salieri and Mozart
I don’t listen to Gluck very often. I don’t know why, since I always greatly enjoy his music when I do.
When you ask people to name famous composers they often say: Bach, Haendel, Mozart, Beethoven, etc. But what is about Gluck? I think Gluck's music should be presented more often to the audience. His melodies are timeless.
My thought exactly. His work is quite dazzling. He is seldom mentioned in the same breath as Mozart or Haydn, but perhaps he should.
@@erasmushousepublishing6190 Yes...However, PBS: "Song Of The Lark" American Masterpiece
@@erasmushousepublishing6190: as far as I'm concerned you are allowed to leave 'perhaps' out of your statement.
Opera reform was performed by Tommaso Traetta (1727 - 1779)
Sofonisba 1761.
To judge from the general stylistic influence in terms of grand scenic effects, and from some specific musical borrowings, Traetta had access in Parma to copies and reports of Rameau's operas. To their influence, Traetta added some ingredients of his own, especially a feeling for dramatic colour, in the shape of his melodies and his use of the orchestra. The result was a combination of Italian, French and German elements, which even anticipate the Sturm und Drang movement that was to flourish a few years later, further North. The first fruit of this francophilia was the opera Traetta wrote in 1759. Ippolito ed Aricia owes a lot to Rameau's great tragédie lyrique of 1733, Hippolyte et Aricie. But Traetta's is no mere translation of Rameau.
Equipped with the highest degree of dramatic genius, full of vigor in the expression of passionate feelings, daring in the modulations and more inclined of the Italian musicians of his time to make use of the chromatic harmony of the German school, Traetta seems to have conceived theater music from the point of view from which Gluck arose a few years later, apart from the diversity in the melodic tendencies which are more evident in the works of the Italian composer. In the pathetic, Traetta sometimes reaches the sublime, as can be seen in the air of Semiramide which was inserted in the Methode de chant du conservatoire de Paris. Sometimes he forgot that the taste of his compatriots then rejected these energetic accents, and that they preferred pure melody to divide their attention between melody and harmony, but when he perceived in his audience the fatigue of this attention, during the first masses on stage, in which he sat at the harpsichord, he used to turn to the spectators saying: "Gentlemen, take care of this step", and the audience almost always applauded this naive expression of pride of the artist.
Distinguished conductors repeat the stereotype about Gluck. Opera reform was performed by Tommaso Traetta Ippolito i Aricia 1759. Sofonisba 1761.
Excelente documental
me encanta la musica, en todos los generos,pertenezco a un coro lirico,en esta opera los espinto me gusta.
“It’s not a homosexual kind of thing…” 29:17. Funny how, during that era, you had to always use that caveat when talking about same sex love, so as not to ruin your career or be seen as queer.
Very nice documentary in parts, but I would have really appreciated much more about Gluck's life and his opera reforms and not so much focus on Iphegenie. Way too much time being spent on that one opera alone. Forward motion of the documentary is lost and the whole thing becomes stagnant.
I concur for I know nothing about the actual composer; There's not much info out there.