The Collected Correspondence and Papers of Christoph Willibald Gluck

Book excerpt: "This is the first time that the complete letters and papers of Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787) have been presented to the world. Students of music history know that the first performance of Alceste was a milestone in the history of opera, as was that of Tannhaüser many decades later. Readers will find new light thrown on the conditions of artists and their relations with their patrons in the eighteenth century. Music lovers will be fascinated by the authentic flavor of mounting excitement as Gluck challenges the 'Establishment' with his 'reform' operas and the famous quarrel breaks over Paris. This episode in its personal drama and historical significance was later to be used by Richard Strauss in his opera of operas Capriccio. The inclusion of whole letters from contemporary journals, to which Gluck frequently refers, will be a revelation to readers of the high level at which the debate was pursued. The letters reveal Gluck not only as a great musician, but as a man of wide interests and culture, whose opinions are invariably stimulating. This is how Gluck epitomizes his views in a letter to the future Emperor Leopold II: 'When I began to write the music for Alceste, I resolved to free it from the abuses which have crept in either through ill-advised vanity on the part of singers or through excessive complaisance on the part of the composers. I sought to restrict the music to its true purpose of giving expression to the poetry, and to strengthen the dramatic situations without interrupting the action or hampering it with unnecessary ornamentations.' The editors provide notes on the Dramatis Personae, a biographical introduction and a foreword describing their own fascinating experiences in compiling the book since they started their quest as early as 1913." --Dust jacket.