A libretto is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as Mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or the story line of a ballet.

Libretto (pl. libretti), from Italian, is the diminutive of the word "libro" (book). A libretto is distinct from a synopsis or scenario of the plot, in that the libretto contains all the words and stage directions, while a synopsis summarizes the plot. However, some ballet historians use the word libretto to refer to the 15–40 page books which were on sale to 19th century ballet audiences in Paris and contained a very detailed description of the ballet's story, scene by scene.^[1]

The relationship of the librettist (that is, the writer of a libretto) to the composer in the creation of a musical work has varied over the centuries, as have the sources and the writing techniques employed.

Relationship of composer and librettist[link]

Libretti for operas, oratorios, and cantatas in the 17th and 18th centuries generally were written by someone other than the composer, often a well-known poet. Metastasio (1698–1782) (real name Pietro Trapassi) was one of the most highly regarded librettists in Europe. His libretti were set many times by many different composers. Another noted 18th century librettist was Lorenzo da Ponte, who wrote the libretti for three of Mozart's greatest operas, as well as for many other composers. Eugène Scribe was one of the most prolific librettists of the 19th century, providing the words for works by Meyerbeer (with whom he had a lasting collaboration), Auber, Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini and Verdi. The French writers' duo Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy wrote a large number of opera and operetta libretti for the likes of Jacques Offenbach, Jules Massenet and Georges Bizet. Arrigo Boito, who wrote libretti for, among others, Giuseppe Verdi and Amilcare Ponchielli, also composed two operas of his own.

The libretto is not always written before the music. Some composers, such as Mikhail Glinka, Alexander Serov, Rimsky-Korsakov, Puccini, and Mascagni wrote passages of music without text and subsequently had the librettist add words to the vocal melody lines. (This has often been the case with American popular song and musicals in the 20th century, as with Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's collaboration, although with the later team of Rodgers and Hammerstein the lyrics were generally written first.)

Some composers wrote their own libretti. Richard Wagner is perhaps most famous in this regard, with his transformations of Germanic legends and events into epic subjects for his operas and music dramas. Hector Berlioz, too, wrote the libretti for two of his best-known works, La Damnation de Faust and Les Troyens. Alban Berg adapted Georg Büchner's play Woyzeck for the libretto of Wozzeck.

Sometimes the libretto is written in close collaboration with the composer; this can involve adaptation, as was the case with Rimsky-Korsakov and his librettist Bel'sky, or an entirely original work. In the case of musicals, the music, the lyrics, and the "book" (i.e., the spoken dialogue and the stage directions) may each have their own author. Thus, a musical such as Fiddler on the Roof has a composer (Jerry Bock), a lyricist (Sheldon Harnick), and the writer of the "book" (Joseph Stein). In rare cases, the composer writes everything except the dance arrangements - music, lyrics, and libretto, as Lionel Bart did for Oliver!.

Other matters in the process of developing a libretto parallel those of spoken dramas for stage or screen. There are the preliminary steps of selecting or suggesting a subject and developing a sketch of the action in the form of a scenario, as well as revisions that might come about when the work is in production, as with out-of-town tryouts for Broadway musicals, or changes made for a specific local audience. A famous case of the latter is Wagner's 1861 revision of the original 1845 Dresden version of his opera Tannhäuser for Paris.

Literary characteristics[link]

The opera libretto from its inception (ca. 1600) was written in verse, and this continued well into the 19th century, although genres of musical theater with spoken dialogue have typically alternated verse in the musical numbers with spoken prose. Since the late 19th century some opera composers have written music to prose or free verse libretti. Much of the recitative of George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess, for instance, is merely DuBose and Dorothy Heyward's play Porgy set to music as written - in prose - with the lyrics of the arias, duets, trios and choruses written in verse.

The libretto of a musical, on the other hand, is almost always written in prose (except for the song lyrics). The libretto of a musical, if the musical is adapted from a play (or even a novel), may even borrow their source's original dialogue liberally - much as Oklahoma! used dialogue from Lynn Riggs's Green Grow the Lilacs, Carousel used dialogue from Ferenc Molnár's Liliom, My Fair Lady took most of its dialogue word-for-word from George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, Man of La Mancha took most of its dialogue from the 1959 television play I, Don Quixote (from which it was adapted), and the 1954 musical version of Peter Pan used J.M. Barrie's dialogue. Even the musical Show Boat, which is greatly different from the Edna Ferber novel from which it was adapted uses some of Ferber's original dialogue, notably during the miscegenation scene. And Lionel Bart's Oliver! uses chunks of dialogue from Charles Dickens's novel Oliver Twist, although it bills itself as a "free adaptation" of the novel.

Language and translation[link]

As the originating language of opera, Italian dominated that genre in Europe (except in France) well through the 18th century, and even into the next century in Russia, for example, when the Italian opera troupe in Saint Petersburg was challenged by the emerging native Russian repertory. Significant exceptions before 1800 can be found in Purcell's works, German opera of Hamburg during the Baroque, ballad opera and Singspiel of the 18th century, etc.

Just as with literature and song, the libretto has its share of problems and challenges with translation. In the past (and even today), foreign musical stage works with spoken dialogue, especially comedies, were sometimes performed with the sung portions in the original language and the spoken dialogue in the vernacular. The effects of leaving lyrics untranslated depend on the piece. Many musicals, such as the old Betty Grable - Don Ameche - Carmen Miranda vehicles, are largely unaffected, but this practice is especially misleading in translations of musicals like Show Boat, The Wizard of Oz, My Fair Lady or Carousel, in which the lyrics to the songs and the spoken text are often or always closely integrated, and the lyrics serve to further the plot.^{[citation needed]} Availability of printed or projected translations today makes singing in the original language more practical, although one cannot discount the desire to hear a sung drama in one's own language.

The Spanish words libretista (playwright, script writer or screen writer) and libreto (script or screen play), which are used in the Hispanic TV and cinema industry, derived their meanings from the original operatic sense.

Status of librettists and the libretto[link]

Poster for La figlia di Iorio where the librettist, Gabriele D'Annunzio, is given top billing

Librettists have historically received less prominent credit than the composer. In some 17th-century operas still being performed, the name of the librettist was not even recorded. As the printing of libretti for sale at performances became more common, these records often survive better than music left in manuscript. But even in late 18th-century London, reviews rarely mentioned the name of the librettist, as Lorenzo da Ponte lamented in his Memoirs.

By the 20th century some librettists became recognized as part of famous collaborations, as with Gilbert and Sullivan or Rodgers and Hammerstein. Today the composer (past or present) of the musical score to an opera or operetta is usually given top billing for the completed work, and the writer of the lyrics relegated to second place or a mere footnote, a notable exception being Gertrude Stein, who received top billing for Four Saints in Three Acts. Another exception was Alberto Franchetti's 1906 opera La figlia di Iorio which was a close rendering of a highly successful play by its librettist, Gabriele D'Annunzio, a celebrated Italian poet, novelist, and dramatist of the day. In some cases, the operatic adaptation has become more famous than the literary text on which it was based, as with Claude Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande after a play by Maurice Maeterlinck.

On the other hand, the affiliation of a poor libretto to great music has sometimes given the libretto's author a kind of accidental immortality. Certainly it is common for works of classical music to be admired in spite of, rather than because of, their libretti. An example is Mozart's inept librettist Varesco.

The question of which is more important in opera — the music or the words — has been debated over time, and forms the basis of at least two operas, Richard Strauss's Capriccio, and Antonio Salieri's Prima la musica, poi le parole.

Publication of libretti[link]

Pages from an 1859 libretto for Ernani, with the original Italian lyrics, English translation, and musical notation for one of the arias

Libretti have been made available in several formats, some more nearly complete than others. The text — i.e., the spoken dialogue, sung lyrics, and stage directions, as applicable — is commonly published separately from the music (such a booklet is usually included with sound recordings of most operas). Sometimes (particularly for operas in the public domain) this format is supplemented with melodic excerpts of musical notation for important numbers.

Printed scores for operas naturally contain the entire libretto, although there can exist significant differences between the score and the separately printed text. More often than not, this involves the extra repetition of words or phrases from the libretto in the actual score. For example, in the aria 'Nessun dorma' from Puccini's Turandot, the final lines in the libretto are "Tramontate, stelle! All'alba, vincerò!" (Fade, you stars! At dawn, I will win!). However, in the score they are sung as "Tramontate, stelle! Tramontate, stelle! All'alba, vincerò! Vincerò! Vincerò!"

Because the modern musical tends to be published in two separate but intersecting formats (i.e., the book and lyrics, with all the words, and the piano-vocal score, with all the musical material, including some spoken cues), both are needed in order to make a thorough reading of an entire show.

See also[link]

• List of opera librettists

References[link]

Notes

Sources

• Kennedy, Michael (2006), The Oxford Dictionary of Music, 985 pages, ISBN 0-19-861459-4
• MacNutt, Richard (1992), 'Libretto' in The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ed. Stanley Sadie (London) ISBN 0-333-73432-7
• Smith, Marian Elizabeth (2000). Ballet and Opera in the Age of Giselle. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-04994-7
• Warrack, John and West, Ewan (1992), The Oxford Dictionary of Opera, 782 pages, ISBN 0-19-869164-5

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Librettos

• Selected Opera Libretti at Naxos
• Public-Domain Opera Libretti and Other Vocal Texts
• 400 Librettos of the most famous Operas
• Либретто во сне и наяву (Libretto in dream and in reality), holding Russian and some Western libretti (in the Russian language, as Microsoft Word files), notably: Libretti of classic Russian operas (in Russian)
• Index of over 900 opera libretti

vep:Libretto

Kanon Wakeshima
Kanon Wakeshima performing at Japan Expo 2009
Background information
Born	(1988-06-28) June 28, 1988 (age 23)
Origin	Tokyo
Genres	Neoclassical dark wave, dark ambient, baroque rock
Occupations	Singer, musician, cellist
Instruments	Vocals, cello
Years active	2008–present
Labels	DefStar Records, Maru Music
Website	www.kanonweb.jp

Kanon Wakeshima (分島 花音, Wakeshima Kanon^?, born June 28, 1988)^{[dubious – discuss]} is a Japanese singer and cellist.^[1] Produced by musician and fashion designer Mana, Wakeshima debuted under the DefStar Records label on May 28, 2008 with the single "Still Doll", the ending theme for the anime adaptation of the manga series Vampire Knight. She also provided the voice for a maid that appears in the eighth episode of the series. Wakeshima's second single "Suna no Oshiro", released on November 12, 2008, was used as the ending theme for the series' second season (subtitled Guilty).^[2]

She was nominated for a Best Newcomer award for 2008 in the fourth annual Shōjo Beat Music Awards, nominees of which are determined by surveying "record companies, music journalists, music experts, and music fans".^[1]

Biography[link]

Before her birth, Wakeshima's music-loving parents wished that she would be a musician. At the age of three, she began learning cello, marking her entry into the world of music. In junior high school she formed her own ensemble group. At the age of fifteen, she transited from her former classical ensembles into playing in the baroque section. Appearing in a variety of recitals and concerts throughout her school years, she began writing her own music and combining singing with her cello playing at the age of sixteen. As she transited from junior high school to high school, she began writing her own music and singing. She gave her first vocal performances during a high school festival.^[3]

Wakeshima auditioned at Sony Music Entertainment as a singer, originally not intending to include her cello playing with her demo tape, but later changed her mind after experimenting with performing with the piano. She became a finalist at the audition, contracting with the Sony subsidiary DefStar Records and debuting on May 28, 2008 with her first single, "Still Doll.^[4] The single was chosen as the ending theme for the first season of the anime adaptation of Vampire Knight.^[2][5][6]

She uses cellos, one for performing, one for music videos and one for recording. Wakeshima has given each cello a name. The white cello is known as "Mikazuki-san", which means "crescent moon" and this is the cello she normally uses during live performances. The red cello is known as "Nanachie-san", which means "wisdom" used in most music videos. According to Wakeshima, Nanachie-san is very hard to play but she manages. Her third cello is a brown cello called "Yaeharu-san", which means "multi-layered spring". Yaeharu-san is very special to Wakeshima as she has had it since middle school, and it is the one she practices on and records with. Currently, she has a new silver cello named "Momotose."^[7]

She has recently formed a duo with An Cafe's bassist Kanon, called Kanon×Kanon. The duo sang the second theme song for the anime adaptation of Shiki, called "Calendula Requiem".

Kanon×Kanon recently made a song "Koi no Doutei" in their newest single, which was later made the OP (opening song) for the new anime "30-sai no Hoken Taiiku" that came out the spring of 2011.

Overseas Performances[link]

Kanon has done numerous performances overseas, including being invited to Japan Expo 2009 in Paris, France and Otakon 2009 in Baltimore, MD. Kanon has also done short concerts in San Francisco and Los Angeles. She was also invited to AM²^[8] 2011, an anime convention in Anaheim, where she had both, a solo and a KanonXKanon concert. Following AM2 Kanon also appeared at Hyper Japan 2011 in London in July and in Ani-Com and Games Hong Kong 2011.

Kanon is also scheduled to perform in various cities in Europe at the end of 2011 as Kanon×Kanon^[9]

The Europe Tour venues and dates are as follows:

04.11.11 Moscow Concert Hall- Moscow / Russia

05.11.11 Zal Ozhidania Club - St.Petersburg / Russia

07.11.11 Tavastia - Helsinki / Finland

09.11.11 Club 202 - Budapest / Hungary

11.11.11 Columbia Club - Berlin / Germany

12.11.11 Zeche - Bochum / Germany

14.11.11 De Helling - Utrecht / Netherlands

15.11.11 Le Marche Gare - Lyon / France

16.11.11 Divan du Monde - Paris / France

18.11.11 O2 Academy Islington - London / GB^[10]

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• Shinshoku Dolce (侵食ドルチェ^?, "Sweetness Violation", 2009)^[2]
• Lolitawork Libretto (少女仕掛けのリブレット～LOLITAWORK LIBRETTO～, Shōjo Jikake no Riburetto ~LOLITAWORK LIBRETTO~^?, "A Libretto on What Makes a Girl Work", 2010)^[2]

Singles[link]

• "Still Doll" (2008)^[2] Oricon Singles chart peak rank 33^[11]
• "Suna no Oshiro" (砂のお城^?, "Sand Castle", 2008)^[2] Oricon Singles chart peak rank 39^[12]
• "Tōmei no Kagi" (透明の鍵^?, "Transparent Key", 2009) (digital download, theme song of the online game Avalon no Kagi)^[13]

As KanonxKanon[link]

• "Calendula Requiem" (カレンデュラ レクイエム, 2010)^[14]
• "Koi no Doutei" (2011)^[15]

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b} North, Dale (February 2009). "Fourth Annual Shojo Beat Music Awards". Shojo Beat (Viz Media) 5 (2): 315–216. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f} "ディスコグラフィ" (in Japanese). Sony Music Online. http://www.sonymusic.co.jp/Music/Arch/DF/kanonwakeshima/m_disco.html. Retrieved 2009-01-05. 
3. ^ Sugie, Yuki. "Artist Profile: Kanon Wakeshima". Sony Music. http://www.sonymusic.co.jp/Music/Info/kanonwakeshima/profile/eng.html. Retrieved 2009-01-05. 
4. ^ Takahashi, Szkoropad (translator). "Kanon Wakeshima Special Feature". CD Japan/Neowing. http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/jpop/essentials/kanon_wakeshima.html. Retrieved 2009-01-06. 
5. ^ "音楽情報サイト" (in Japanese). Hot Express Music Magazine. 2008-03-25. http://www.hotexpress.co.jp/news/080325_kanon/. Retrieved 2009-01-05. 
6. ^ "J!-ENT INTERVIEW: Kanon Wakeshima by J!-ENT's Dennis A. Amith". http://www.nt2099.com/J-ENT/INTERVIEWS/kanon-wakeshima/kanonwakeshima.pdf. Retrieved 2009-08-11. 
7. ^ Wakeshima, Kanon. "The Lolita Revolution". The Lolita Revolution. http://ameblo.jp/wakeshima. Retrieved 9 September 2011. 
8. ^ "AM2 Convention". AM2 Convention. AM2Con. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AM%C2%B2. Retrieved 8 July 2011. 
9. ^ Wakeshima, Kanon. "Kanon Wakeshima". http://www.kanonweb.jp/main.html. Retrieved 2 September 2011. 
10. ^ Kanon, Kanon. "kanonxkanon Information". http://www.kanonkanon.net/info/index.html. Retrieved 25 October 2011. 
11. ^ "Still Doll, Kanon Wakeshima" (in Japanese). Oricon. http://www.oricon.co.jp/music/release/d/762114/1/. Retrieved 2009-01-20. 
12. ^ "Suna No Oshiro, Kanon Wakeshima" (in Japanese). Oricon. http://www.oricon.co.jp/music/release/d/786316/1/. Retrieved 2009-01-20. 
13. ^ "フランス・アメリカを熱狂させたチェロ・シンガー、分島花音が新曲発表" (in Japanese). Livedoor News. Livedoor. 2009-09-17. http://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/4353599/. Retrieved 2010-07-27. 
14. ^ "kanonxkanon" (in Japanese). Sony Music Online. http://www.sonymusic.co.jp/Music/Arch/DF/kanon_kanon/index.html. Retrieved 2010-09-06. 
15. ^ "koi no dotei". http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=DFCL-1774. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kanon Wakeshima

• Official Website (Japanese)
• Kanon Wakeshima at Maru Music
• Kanon Wakeshima Interview at Anime Dream
• Kanon Wakeshima Interview for Purple SKY
• Getting ready for the first UK performance from gothic Lolita icon Kanon Wakeshima

Gluck, detail of a portrait by Joseph Duplessis, dated 1775 (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna)

Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck (2 July 1714 in Erasbach near Berching (Upper Palatinate), Germany – 15 November 1787 in Vienna) was an opera composer of the early classical period. After many years at the Habsburg court at Vienna, Gluck brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years. With a series of radical new works in the 1760s, among them Orfeo ed Euridice and Alceste, he broke the stranglehold that Metastasian opera seria had enjoyed for much of the century.

The strong influence of French opera in these works encouraged Gluck to move to Paris, which he did in November 1773. Fusing the traditions of Italian opera and the French national genre into a new synthesis, Gluck wrote eight operas for the Parisian stages. One of the last of these, Iphigénie en Tauride, was a great success and is generally acknowledged to be his finest work. Though he was extremely popular and widely credited with bringing about a revolution in French opera, Gluck's mastery of the Parisian operatic scene was never absolute, and after the poor reception of his Echo et Narcisse he left Paris in disgust and returned to Vienna to live out the remainder of his life.

Early years[link]

Gluck was born in Erasbach (now a district of Berching, Bavaria) the first of six surviving children. His father, Alexander Johannes, came from a long line of foresters, and married Gluck's mother, Maria Walburga, in about 1711. During 1717 the family moved to Bohemia, where the father became head forester in the service of Prince Philipp Hyazinth von Lobkowitz in 1727. According to J. C. von Mannlich, who shared rooms with Gluck in Paris, it was as a Bohemian schoolboy that Gluck received his first musical training, both as a singer in the church choir and by learning. Gluck later wrote:

My father was a head forester in [Eisenberg] in Bohemia and he had brought me up to follow in his footsteps. At that time music was all the rage. Unfortunately, inflamed with a passion for this art, I soon made astounding progress and was able to play several instruments. My whole being became obsessed with music and I left all thoughts of a forester's life behind."

A childhood flight from home to Vienna is included in several contemporary accounts of Gluck's life, including Mannlich's, but recent scholarship has cast doubt on Gluck's picturesque tales of earning food and shelter by his singing as he travelled. Most now claim that, if this incident happened at all, it occurred later, and the object of Gluck's journeying was not Vienna but Prague, and connected to his studies at the University of Prague, where according to early biographies he began studying logic and mathematics in 1731. At that time the University boasted a flourishing musical scene that included performances of both Italian opera and oratorio. Gluck eventually left Prague without taking a degree, and vanishes from the historical record until 1737, a possible year (likely to have been 1736) in Vienna apart.

Italy[link]

In 1737 Gluck arrived in Milan, where he studied under G. B. Sammartini, who, according to Carpani, taught Gluck "practical knowledge of all the instruments." Apparently this relationship lasted for several years. Sammartini was not, primarily, a composer of opera, his main output being of sacred music and symphonies, but Milan boasted a vibrant opera scene, and Gluck soon formed an association with one of the city's up-and-coming opera houses, the Teatro Regio Ducal, where his first opera, Artaserse, was performed on 26 December 1741. Set to a libretto by Metastasio, the opera opened the Milanese Carnival of 1742. According to one anecdote, the public would not accept Gluck's style until he inserted an aria in the lighter Milanese manner for contrast.

Nevertheless, Gluck composed an opera for each of the next four Carnivals at Milan, with renowned castrato Giovanni Carestini appearing in many of the performances, so the reaction to Artaserse is unlikely to have been completely unfavourable. He also wrote operas for other cities of Northern Italy in between Carnival seasons, including Turin and Venice, where his Ipermestra was given during November 1744 at the Teatro San Giovanni Crisostomo. Nearly all of his operas in this period were, like Artaserse, set to Metastasio's texts, despite the poet's dislike for his style of composition.

Travels: 1745–1752[link]

In 1745 Gluck accepted an invitation to become house composer at London's King's Theatre, probably travelling to England via Frankfurt and in the company of Georg Christian, Fürst von Lobkowitz. The timing was poor, as the Jacobite Rebellion had caused much panic in London, and for most of the year the King's Theatre was closed. Gluck's two London operas, (La caduta de'giganti and Artamene) eventually performed in 1746, borrowed much from his earlier works, a method that was to re-occur throughout his career. Six trio sonatas were the other immediate fruits of his time in London. A more long-term benefit was exposure to the music of Handel – whom he later credited as a great influence on his style – and the naturalistic acting style of David Garrick. Either Gluck or Lobkowitz bought a copy of Handel's Messiah.^[1] Handel's own experience of Gluck pleased that composer less: Charles Burney reports Handel as saying that "he [Gluck] knows no more of contrapunto, as mein cook, Waltz".

The years 1747 and 1748 brought Gluck two highly prestigious engagements. First came a commission to produce an opera for Dresden, performed by Pietro Mingotti's troupe, to celebrate a royal double wedding that would unite the ruling families of Bavaria and Saxony. Le nozze d'Ercole e d'Ebe, a festa teatrale, borrowed heavily from earlier works, and even from Gluck's teacher Sammartini. The success of this work brought Gluck to the attention of the Viennese court, and, ahead of such a figure as Johann Adolph Hasse, he was selected to set Metastasio's Semiramide riconosciuta to celebrate Maria Theresa's birthday. Vittoria Tesi took the title role. On this occasion Gluck's music was completely original, but the displeasure of the court poet, Metastasio, who called the opera "archvandalian music," probably explains why Gluck did not remain long in Vienna despite the work's enormous popular success (it was performed 27 times to great acclaim). For the remainder of 1748 and 1749 Gluck travelled with Mingotti's troupe, contracting a venereal disease from the prima donna and composing the opera La contesa de' numi for the court at Copenhagen.

In 1750 he abandoned Mingotti's group for another company established by a former member of the Mingotti troupe, Giovanni Battista Locatelli. The main effect of this was that Gluck returned to Prague on a more consistent basis. For the Prague Carnival of 1750 Gluck composed a new opera, Ezio (again set to one of Metastasio's works). His Ipermestra was also performed in the same year. The other major event of Gluck's stay in Prague was, on 15 September 1750, his marriage to Maria Anna Bergin, aged 18 years old, the daughter of a rich but long-dead Viennese merchant. The marriage brought Gluck financial security, and he seems to have spent most of 1751 commuting between Prague and Vienna.

The year 1752 brought another major commission to Gluck, when he was asked to set Metastasio's La clemenza di Tito (the specific libretto was the composer's choice) for the nameday celebrations of King Charles VII of Naples (later Charles III of Spain). The opera was performed on 4 November at the Teatro di San Carlo, and the world-famous mezzo-soprano castrato Caffarelli (Gaetano Majorano) took the role of Sextus. For Caffarelli Gluck composed the famous, but notoriously difficult, aria "Se mai senti spirarti sul volto," which provoked admiration and vituperation in equally large measures. Gluck later reworked this aria for his Iphigénie en Tauride. According to one account, the Neapolitan composer Francesco Durante claimed that his fellow composers "should have been proud to have conceived and written [the aria]." Durante simultaneously declined to comment whether or not it was within the boundaries of the accepted compositional rules of the time.

Vienna[link]

Gluck finally settled in Vienna where he became Kapellmeister. He wrote Le Cinesi for a festival in 1754 and La Danza for the birthday of the future Emperor Leopold II the following year. After his opera Antigono was performed in Rome in February, 1756, Gluck was made a Knight of the Golden Spur by Pope Benedict XIV. From that time on, Gluck used the title "Ritter von Gluck" or "Chevalier de Gluck."

Gluck turned his back on Italian opera seria and began to write opéra comiques. In 1761, Gluck produced the groundbreaking ballet Don Juan in collaboration with the choreographer Gasparo Angiolini. The climax of Gluck's opéra comique writing was La rencontre imprévue of 1764. By that time, Gluck was already engaged in his operatic reforms.

Operatic reforms[link]

Gluck had long pondered the fundamental problem of form and content in opera. He thought both of the main Italian operatic genres – opera buffa and opera seria – had strayed too far from what opera should really be and seemed unnatural. Opera buffa had long lost its original freshness. Its jokes were threadbare and the repetition of the same characters made them seem no more than stereotypes. In opera seria the singing was devoted to superficial effects and the content was uninteresting and fossilised. As in opera buffa, the singers were effectively absolute masters of the stage and the music, decorating the vocal lines so floridly that audiences could no longer recognise the original melody. Gluck wanted to return opera to its origins, focusing on human drama and passions and making words and music of equal importance.

In Vienna, Gluck met likeminded figures in the operatic world: Count Giacomo Durazzo, the head of the court theatre, who was a passionate admirer of French stage music; the librettist Ranieri de' Calzabigi, who wanted to attack the dominance of Metastasian opera seria; the innovative choreographer Gasparo Angiolini; and the London-trained castrato Gaetano Guadagni.

The first result of the new thinking was Gluck's reformist ballet Don Juan, but a more important work was soon to follow. On 5 October 1762, Orfeo ed Euridice was given its first performance, with music by Gluck to words by Calzabigi. The dances were arranged by Angiolini and the title role was taken by Guadagni. Orfeo, which has never left the standard repertory, showed the beginnings of Gluck's reforms. His idea was to make the drama of the work more important than the star singers who performed it, and to do away with dry recitative (recitativo secco, accompanied only by continuo) that broke up the action. The more flowing and dramatic style which resulted has been seen as a precursor to the music dramas of Richard Wagner.

Gluck and Calzabigi followed Orfeo with Alceste (1767) and Paride ed Elena (1770), pushing their innovations even further. Calzabigi wrote a preface to Alceste, which Gluck signed, setting out the principles of their reforms.

Paris[link]

Gluck then began to spread his ideas to France. Under the patronage of his former music pupil, Marie Antoinette, who had married the future French king Louis XVI in 1770, Gluck signed a contract for six stage works with the management of the Paris Opéra. He began with Iphigénie en Aulide (19 April 1774). The premiere sparked a huge controversy, almost a war, such as had not been seen in the city since the Querelle des Bouffons. Gluck's opponents brought the leading Italian composer, Niccolò Piccinni, to Paris to demonstrate the superiority of Neapolitan opera and the "whole town" engaged in an argument between "Gluckists" and "Piccinnists." The composers themselves took no part in the polemics, but when Piccinni was asked to set the libretto to Roland, on which Gluck was also known to be working, Gluck destroyed everything he had written for that opera up to that point.

On 2 August 1774 the French version of Orfeo ed Euridice was performed, with the title role transposed from the castrato to the tenor voice. This time Gluck's work was better received by the Parisian public. In the same year Gluck returned to Vienna, where he was appointed composer to the imperial court. Over the next few years the now internationally famous composer would travel back and forth between Paris and Vienna. On 23 April 1776, the French version of Alceste was given.

Gluck also wrote Armide (1777), Iphigénie en Tauride (1779) and Echo et Narcisse for Paris. During the rehearsals for Echo et Narcisse, Gluck suffered his first stroke. Since the opera itself was a complete failure, Gluck decided to return to Vienna.

His musical heir in Paris was the composer Antonio Salieri, who had been Gluck's protégé since he arrived in Vienna in 1767, and later had made friends with Gluck. Gluck brought Salieri to Paris with him and bequeathed him the libretto for Les Danaïdes by Leblanc du Roullet and Baron Tschudi. The opera was announced as a collaboration between the two composers; however, after the overwhelming success of its premiere on 26 April 1784, Gluck revealed to the prestigious Journal de Paris that the work was wholly Salieri's.

Last years[link]

In Vienna Gluck wrote a few more minor works but he generally lived in retirement. In 1781 he brought out a German version of Iphigénie en Tauride and other operas of his enjoyed great popularity in Vienna.

On 15 November 1787, in Vienna, Gluck suffered another stroke and died a few days later. At a formal commemoration on 8 April 1788 his friend and pupil Salieri conducted Gluck's De profundis and a requiem by the Italian composer Niccolò Jommelli was given. Like many other prominent musicians and painters Gluck was buried in the Matzleinsdorfer Friedhof. When this cemetery was turned into a park in 1923, Gluck's remains were transferred to a tomb in the Vienna Zentralfriedhof.

Gluck's musical legacy includes approximately 35 complete full-length operas plus around a dozen shorter operas and operatic introductions, as well as numerous ballets and instrumental works. His reforms influenced Mozart, particularly his opera Idomeneo (1781). Gluck left behind a flourishing school of disciples in Paris, who would dominate the French stage throughout the Revolutionary and Napoleonic period. As well as Salieri, they included Sacchini, Cherubini, Méhul and Spontini. Gluck's greatest French admirer would be Hector Berlioz, whose epic Les Troyens may be seen as the culmination of the Gluckian tradition. Though Gluck wrote no operas in German, his example influenced the German school of opera, particularly Weber and Wagner, whose concept of music drama was not so far removed from Gluck's own.

Works[link]

Operas[link]

Ballets[link]

Songs with piano[link]

• Klopstocks Oden und Lieder beym Clavier zu Singen (Vienna, 1785; individually published during 70s)
  • Vaterlandslied ("Ich bin ein deutsches Mädchen")
  • Wir und sie ("Was that dir, Thor, dein Vaterland?")
  • Schlachtgesang ("Wie erscholl der Gang des lauten Heers")
  • Der Jüngling ("Schweigend sahe der May") [earlier version published in Göttinger Musenalmanach, 1775]
  • Der Sommernacht ("Wenn der Schimmer von dem Monde") [different version in Musenalmanach, ed. J.H. Voss (Hamburg, 1785)]
  • Die frühen Gräber ("Willkommen, o silberner Mond")
  • Die Neigung ("Nein, ich widerstrebe nicht mehr")
• An den Tod ("O Anblick der Glanznacht") (Klopstock), in Musikalischer Blumenstrauss (Berlin, 1792)
• "Minona lieblich und hold", duet, in Musikalische Blumenlese (Berlin, 1795)
• Siegsgesang für Freie ("Laut, wie des Stroms donnernder Sturz") (Friedrich von Matthisson), in Musenalmanach, ed. Voss (Hamburg, 1795)

A number of additional works in German, Italian and French are considered doubtful or spurious.

Arias & solo motets[link]

• "Berenice, ove sei … Ombra che pallida" (recitatve and aria for Apostolo Zeno's Lucio vero)
• Alma sedes, motet, 1v, orch (Paris, before 1779)

A number of additional Latin motets have been identified as parodies from Gluck's operas

Choral[link]

• De profundis clamavi for SATB & orchestra, performed 17 Nov. 1787 at Gluck’s burial and published Paris, c1804
• Lost works include a Miserere (? Turin, 1744–5), a setting of Psalm viii, c1753–7, and a '‘Grand choeur'’ performed in Vienna, 18 March 1762
• Doubtful: Hoch tut euch auf (Ps xxiv),Hosianna gelobet sei der da kommt, Mit fröhlichem Munde

Instrumental music[link]

• 9 Symphonies are listed in Alfred Wotquenne's 1904 catalogue, another 12 mentioned in Grove include some that are doubtful.
• Six trio sonatas, (London, 1746)
  • No 1 in C major
  • No 2 in g minor
  • No 3 in A major
  • No 4 in B-flat major
  • No 5 in E-flat major
  • No 6 in F major
• Two trio sonatas, after manuscripts
  • no 1 (No 7) in E major
  • No 2 (No 8) in F major

Notes[link]

Sources[link]

• Bruce Alan Brown, Julian Rushton. "Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (accessed 11 November 2007), grovemusic.com (subscription access).
• Bruce Alan Brown: Gluck and the French Theatre in Vienna. Oxford: Clarendon Press 1991
• This article incorporates material from the German version of Wikipedia

Further reading[link]

• A. A. Abert: Christoph Willibald Gluck (in German) (Munich, 1959) OCLC 5996991
• P. Howard: Gluck and the Birth of Modern Opera (London, 1963) OCLC 699685
• W. Felix: Christoph Willibald Gluck (in German) (Leipzig, 1965) OCLC 16770241
• D. Heartz: "From Garrick to Gluck: the Reform of Theatre and Opera in the Mid-Eighteenth Century", Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, xciv (1967–8), 111–27. ISSN 0269-0403, 0080-4452.
• J. Rushton: "The Musician Gluck", The Musical Times, cxxvi (1987), 615–18. ISSN 0027-4666
• J. Kerman: Opera as Drama (New York, 1956, 2/1989) Revised 1989 edition ISBN 978-0-520-06274-0.
• F. W. Sternfeld: "Expression and Revision in Gluck"s Orfeo and Alceste", Essays Presented to Egon Wellesz (Oxford, 1966), 114–29
• P. Howard: "“Orfeo” and “Orphée”", The Musical Times, cviii (1967), 892–4. ISSN 0027-4666
• P. Howard: "Gluck"s Two Alcestes: a Comparison", The Musical Times, cxv (1974), 642–3. ISSN 0027-4666
• O. F. Saloman: Aspects of Gluckian Operatic Thought and Practice in France (diss., Columbia U., 1970)
• J. Rushton: "Iphigénie en Tauride: the Operas of Gluck and Piccinni", Music & Letters, liii (1972), 411–30. ISSN 0027-4224
• M. Noiray: Gluck"s Methods of Composition in his French Operas "Iphigénie en Aulide", "Orphée", "Iphigénie en Tauride" (diss., U. of Oxford, 1979
• P. Howard: "Armide: a Forgotten Masterpiece", Opera, xxx (1982), 572–6. ISSN 0030-3526
• J. Rushton: "“Royal Agamemnon”: the Two Versions of Gluck"s Iphigénie en Aulide", Music and the French Revolution, ed. M. Boyd (Cambridge, 1992), 15–36. ISBN 978-0-521-08187-0.
• P. Howard: Christoph Willibald Gluck: A Guide to Research. (London, Routledge, 2003) ISBN 978-0-415-94072-6.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Christoph Willibald Gluck

• Free scores by Christoph Willibald Gluck in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Free scores by Christoph Willibald Gluck in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Free scores by Christoph Willibald Gluck at the International Music Score Library Project

Mireille Delunsch (born 2 November 1962) is an opera soprano. She was born in Mulhouse, France, and studied musicology and voice at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg. Her debut was at the Opéra du Rhin in Mulhouse, in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov.

Her repertory is wide, from Baroque opera to 20th century art songs, with an emphasis on French music. She is best known for the operas she has sung under the direction of French conductor Marc Minkowski.

Recordings[link]

Among the operas Delunsch has recorded with Minkowski are:

• La dame blanche by Boïeldieu (1996, released 1997, EMI Classics) - Jenny
• Armide by Gluck (1996, released 1999, Archiv) - Armide
• Dardanus by Rameau (1998, released 2000, Archiv) - Vénus
• Iphigénie en Tauride also by Gluck (1999, released 2001, Archiv) - Iphigénie
• Orphée et Eurydice (French version) also by Gluck (2002, released 2004, Archiv) - Eurydice

and DVD/TV broadcast

• L'incoronazione di Poppea by Monteverdi (2000, DVD) - Poppea
• Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss II (2001, DVD) - Rosalinde
• Platée by Rameau (2002, DVD) - La Folie & Thalie
• Gala Jean-Philippe Rameau - Concert du 20ème anniversaire des Musiciens du Louvre (2003, TV)

Other recordings include:

• Herminie by Hector Berlioz, conducted by Philippe Herreweghe (1995, Harmonia Mundi)
• Elektra by Richard Strauss conducted by Friedemann Layer (1995, released 2001, Naïve) - Fünfte Magd
• Pelléas et Mélisande by Claude Debussy conducted by Jean-Claude Casadesus (1997, Naxos) - Mélisande
• Complete Songs by Henri Duparc (2000, Timpani)
• Cantates de Rome by Maurice Ravel (2000, EMI Classics), conducted by Michel Plasson
• Les deux journées by Luigi Cherubini, conducted by Christoph Spering (2002, Opus 111)
• Fisch-Ton-Kan by Emmanuel Chabrier, conducted by Roger Delage (1992, Arion)

Delunsch has also appeared in a number of opera telecasts.

References[link]

• Naxos discography for Delunsch, accessed 21 January 2010
• MusicWeb review of Pierre Bartholomée's La Lumière Antigone with Delunsch, accessed 21 January 2010

External links[link]

• Site officiel
• Mireille Delunsch at the Internet Movie Database

Marc Minkowski (born 4 October 1962)^[1][2] is a French conductor of classical music, especially known for his interpretations of French Baroque works. His mother, Mary Anne (Wade), is American, and his father was Alexandre Minkowski, a Polish-French professor of pediatrics and one of the founders of neonatology.^[3] Marc Minkowski is a Chevalier du Mérite.

Life and career[link]

Marc Minkowski was born in Paris. His maternal grandmother, Edith Wade, was a violinist.^[4] He began his musical career as a bassoonist for René Clemencic's Clemencic Consort and Philippe Pierlot's Ricercar Consort.^[5]

In 1982 Minkowski formed "Les Musiciens du Louvre", an orchestra dedicated to showcasing French Baroque music^[6][7] which has championed works by Marin Marais (opera Alcione), Jean-Joseph Mouret (opera Les amours de Ragonde), Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Jean-Baptiste Lully (opera Phaëton at Opéra National de Lyon) and Jean-Philippe Rameau (opera Hippolyte et Aricie). The ensemble has also revived lesser-known Handel operas, such as Teseo, Amadigi, Riccardo Primo and Ariodante, as well as several operas by Christoph Willibald Gluck including Armide (at the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles), Alceste and Iphigénie en Tauride (at the English Bach Festival at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden).

Les Musiciens du Louvre relocated to Grenoble after 1996, where they are associates at the Maison de la Culture de Grenoble.^[8]

Minkowski's career focus has shifted from an initial specialized interest in the Baroque to a wider interest in opera. He conducted Mozart's Idomeneo in 1996 at the Opéra National de Paris and debuted his Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Salzburg Festival. He has since conducted Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence and Mitridate, re di Ponto at the Salzburg Festival, Handel's Giulio Cesare in Amsterdam, Paris and Zürich (with Cecilia Bartoli) and his Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno in Zürich, Donizetti's La Favorite in Zürich, and Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride, among others.