Christoph Willibald Gluck Photo: Duplessis, Public Domain
Today, Gluck is really only known for one opera, Orpheus and Eurydice, but he wrote many more.
As Elric Hooper mentions, looking at the picture, you could easily imagine that Gluck was born an aristocrat.
In actual fact, Gluck's father was a woodcutter, and it was his ability on the fiddle that earned the young composer a musical education.
Music Details:
GLUCK: Che faro senza Euridice, from Orpheus and Euridice - Marilyn Horne (mezzo), Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Orch/ Georg Solti (Decca 421 329)
GLUCK: Che faro senza Euridice, from Orpheus and Euridice - Marilyn Horne (mezzo), Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Orch/ Georg Solti (Decca 421 329)
GLUCK: Quartet, from Le Cinesi - Orchestra of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis/ René Jacobs (Editio Classica GD 77174)
GLUCK: Dance of the spectres, from Don Juan - Il Giardino Armonico/ Giovanni Antonini (Opus 111 Op 30399)
GLUCK: Que le plus doux, from Alceste - Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists/ John Eliot Gardiner (Philips 470 293)
GLUCK: Overture, from Iphigenia in Aulis - Lyon Opera Orch/ John Eliot Gardiner (Erato 2292-45003)
GLUCK: J'ai perdu mon Eurydice, from Orpheus and Euridice - Leopold Simoneau (tenor), Lamoureux Concert Orchestra/ Hans Rosbaud (Philips 442602)
GLUCK: Ombres, larves, pales, from Alceste - Anne Sofie von Otter (mezzo), Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists/ John Eliot Gardiner (Philips 470 293)
GLUCK: Le calme rente from Iphigénie en Tauride - Boston Baroque Choir & Orch/ Martin Pearlman (Telarc CD 80546)
GLUCK: What is life to me without thee, from Orpheus and Euridice - Kathleen Ferrier (contralto), Glyndebourne Festival Chorus, Southern Phil/ Fritz Stiedry (Decca 475 078)
GLUCK: Dance of the Blessed Spirits, from Orpheus and Euridice - Marilyn Horne (mezzo), Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Orch/ Georg Solti (Decca 421 329)
