Brief biography of the glitch. Biography of the glitch and a brief description of the composer’s work. Principles of opera reform

LICHTENBERG, Georg Christof (1742–1799), German scientist and writer 543 I thank God a thousand times for making me an atheist. “Aphorisms” (published posthumously); hereinafter per. G. Slobodkina? Dept. ed. – M., 1964, p. 68 Later the phrase “Thank God I’m an atheist”

In Italy, the struggle of trends took place between seria (serious) opera, which served mainly the court circles of society, and buffa (comic) opera, which expressed the interests of the democratic strata.

The Italian opera seria, which emerged in Naples at the end of the 17th century, had a progressive significance in the early period of its history (in the work of A. Scarlatti and his closest followers). Melodic singing, based on the origins of Italian folk song, the crystallization of the bel canto vocal style, which was one of the criteria of high vocal culture, the establishment of a viable operatic composition, consisting of a number of completed arias, duets, ensembles, united by recitatives, played a very positive role in the further development of European opera art.

But already in the first half of the 18th century, Italian opera seria entered a period of crisis and began to reveal ideological and artistic decline. High culture bel canto, which was previously associated with conveying the state of mind of opera heroes, has now degenerated into an external cult of a beautiful voice as such, regardless of the dramatic meaning. Singing began to be replete with numerous apparently virtuosic passages, coloraturas and graces, which were aimed at demonstrating the vocal technique of singers and female singers. Opera, therefore, instead of being a drama, the content of which is revealed through music in organic combination with stage action, turned into a competition of masters of vocal art, for which it received the name “concert in costumes.” The plots of the opera seria, borrowed from ancient mythology or ancient history, were standardized: these were usually episodes from the life of kings and commanders with an intricate love affair and an obligatory happy ending that met the requirements of court aesthetics.

Thus, the Italian opera seria of the 18th century found itself in a state of crisis. However, some composers tried to overcome this crisis in their operatic work. G. F. Handel, certain Italian composers (N. Iomelli, T. Traetta and others), as well as K. V. Gluck in early operas strived for a closer relationship between dramatic action and music, for the destruction of empty “virtuosity” in vocal parties. But Gluck was destined to become a true reformer of opera during the period of creation of his best works.

Opera buffa

In contrast to the opera seria, democratic circles put forward the opera buffa, whose homeland is also Naples. Opera buffa was distinguished by its modern everyday themes, folk-national basis of music, realistic tendencies and life-like truthfulness in the embodiment of typical images.

The first classic example of this advanced genre was G. Pergolesi’s opera “The Maid and Mistress,” which played a huge historical role in the establishment and development of Italian opera buffa.

As the opera buffa further evolved in the 18th century, its scale increased, the number of characters grew, the intrigue became more complex, and such dramaturgically important elements appeared as large ensembles and finales (extended ensemble scenes that conclude each act of the opera).

In the 60s years XVIII century, the Italian opera buffa has been penetrated by a lyrical and sentimental current, characteristic of European art of this period. In this regard, such operas as “The Good Daughter” by N. Piccini (1728-1800), partly “The Miller’s Woman” by G. Paisiello (1741 -1816) and his “The Barber of Seville”, written for St. Petersburg (1782) on the plot of a comedy, are indicative Beaumarchais.

The composer whose work completed the development of the Italian opera buffa of the 18th century was D. Chimarosa (1749-1801), the author of the famous, popular opera “The Secret Marriage” (1792).

French lyrical tragedy

Opera life in France was something similar, but on a different national basis and in different forms. Here the operatic direction, reflecting the tastes and requirements of courtly aristocratic circles, was the so-called “lyrical tragedy”, created in the 17th century by the great French composer J. B. Lully (1632-1687). But Lully’s work also contained a significant share of people’s democratic elements. Romain Rolland notes that Lully’s melodies “were sung not only in the most noble houses, but also in the kitchen from which he emerged”, that “his melodies were sung in the streets, they were “sung” on instruments, his very overtures were sung with specially chosen words . Many of his melodies turned into folk couplets (vaudevilles)... His music, partially borrowed from the people, returned back to the lower classes.”1

However, after Lully's death, French lyrical tragedy deteriorated. If already in Lully’s operas ballet played a significant role, then later, due to its dominance, the opera turns into almost a continuous divertissement, its dramaturgy disintegrates; it becomes a magnificent spectacle, devoid of a big unifying idea and unity. True, in the operatic work of J. F. Rameau (1683-1764), the best traditions of Lully’s lyrical tragedy are revived and further developed. According to Rameau, he lived in the 18th century, when the advanced strata of French society, led by encyclopedists and educators - J.-J. Rousseau, D. Diderot and others "(ideologists of the third estate) demanded realistic, life-like art, whose heroes instead mythological characters and the gods would be ordinary, simple people.

And this art, meeting the requirements of democratic circles of society, was French comic opera, which originated in the fair theaters of the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

French comic opera. The production in Paris in 1752 of Pergolesi's The Maid and Madam was the final impetus for the development of French comic opera. The controversy surrounding the production of Pergolesi's opera was called the “war of buffonists and anti-buffonists”2. It was led by encyclopedists who advocated realistic musical and theatrical art and against the conventions of the courtly aristocratic theater. In the decades preceding the French bourgeois revolution 1789, this controversy took on sharp forms. Following Pergolesi’s “The Maid and Mistress,” one of the leaders of the French enlightenment, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, wrote a small comic opera, “The Village Sorcerer” (1752).

French comic opera found its outstanding representatives in the person of F. A. Philidor (1726-1795), P. A. Monsigny (1729-1817), A. Grétry (1742-1813). A particularly prominent role was played by Grétry's opera Richard the Lionheart (1784). Some operas by Monsigny (“The Deserter”) and Grétry (“Lucile”) reflected the same lyrical-sentimental current that was characteristic of the art of the mid- and second half of the 18th century.

Gluck's arrival to classical musical tragedy.

However, French comic opera, with its everyday themes, sometimes with bourgeois ideals and moralizing tendencies, ceased to satisfy the increased aesthetic requirements of advanced democratic circles, and seemed too small to embody the big ideas and feelings of the pre-revolutionary era. What was needed here was heroic and monumental art. And such operatic art, embodying great civic ideals, was created by Gluck. Having critically perceived and mastered all the best that existed in contemporary opera, Gluck came to a new classical musical tragedy that met the needs of the advanced part of society. That is why Gluck's work was greeted with such enthusiasm in Paris by encyclopedists and the progressive public in general.

According to Romain Rolland, “Gluck’s revolution - this was its strength - was not the work of Gluck’s genius alone, but the work of a century-long development of thought. The coup was prepared, announced and expected for twenty years by encyclopedists.”1 One of the most prominent representatives of the French enlightenment, Denis Diderot, wrote back in 1757, that is, almost twenty years before Gluck’s arrival in Paris: “Let a man of genius appear who will bring true tragedy to the stage of the lyric theater!” Diderot further states: “I mean a person who has a genius in his art; This is not a person who only knows how to string modulations and combine notes.”2 As an example of a great classical tragedy that requires musical embodiment, Diderot cites a dramatic scene from “Iphigenia in Aulis” by the great French playwright Racine, accurately indicating the places of recitatives and arias 3.

This wish of Diderot turned out to be prophetic: Gluck's first opera, written for Paris in 1774, was Iphigenia in Aulis.

The life and creative path of K.V. Gluck

Gluck's childhood

Christoph Willibald Gluck was born on July 2, 1714 in Erasbach (Upper Palatinate) near the Czech border.

Gluck's father was a peasant, served as a soldier in his youth, and then made forestry his profession and worked as a forester in the Bohemian forests in the service of Count Lobkowitz. Thus, with three years old(since 1717) Christoph Willibald lived in the Czech Republic, which subsequently affected his work. A stream of Czech folk song breaks through in Gluck's music.

Gluck's childhood was harsh: the family had meager means, and he had to help his father in the difficult forestry business. This contributed to the development of Gluck's resilience and strong character, which later helped him in implementing reform ideas.

Years of Gluck's teaching

In 1726, Gluck entered the Jesuit college in the Czech city of Komotau, where he studied for six years and sang in the choir of the school church. All teaching at the college was imbued with blind faith in church dogmas and the demand for worship of superiors, which, however, could not subjugate young musician, a future cutting-edge artist.

The positive side of the training was Gluck's mastery of the Greek and Latin languages, ancient literature and poetry. For an opera composer in an era when the art of opera was largely based on ancient themes, this was necessary.

While studying at the college, Gluck also studied the clavier, organ and cello. In 1732, he moved to the Czech capital Prague, where he entered university while continuing his musical education. At times, in order to earn money, Gluck was forced to leave his studies and wander around the surrounding villages, where he played various dances and fantasies on folk themes on the cello.

In Prague, Gluck sang in a church choir led by the outstanding composer and organist Boguslav of Chernogorsk (1684-1742), nicknamed the “Czech Bach.” Chernogorsky was Gluck's first real teacher, teaching him the basics of general bass (harmony) and counterpoint.

Gluck in Vienna

In 1736, a new period began in Gluck’s life, associated with the beginning of his creative activity and musical career. Count Lobkowitz (who had Gluck's father in his service) became interested in the young musician's extraordinary talent; Taking Gluck with him to Vienna, he appointed him court singer in his chapel and chamber musician. In Vienna, where musical life was in full swing, Gluck immediately plunged into the special musical atmosphere created around Italian opera, which then dominated the Viennese opera stage. At the same time, the famous 18th-century playwright and librettist Pietro Metastasio lived and worked in Vienna. Gluck wrote his first operas based on the texts of Metastasio.

Study and work in Italy

At one of the ballroom evenings at Count Lobkowitz's, when Gluck was playing the clavier, accompanying the dances, the Italian philanthropist Count Melzi drew attention to him. He took Gluck with him to Italy, to Milan. There Gluck spent four years (1737-1741), improving his knowledge of musical composition under the guidance of the outstanding Italian composer, organist and conductor Giovanni Battista Sammartini (4704-1774). Having become acquainted with Italian opera in Vienna, Gluck, of course, came into closer and closer contact with it in Italy itself. Beginning in 1741, he himself began to compose operas that were performed in Milan and other Italian cities. These were operas seria, written in large part to texts by P. Metastasio (“Artaxerxes”, “Demetrius”, “Hypermnestra” and a number of others). Almost none of Gluck's early operas have survived in their entirety; Of these, only a few numbers have reached us. In these operas, Gluck, while still captivated by the conventions of traditional opera seria, sought to overcome its shortcomings. This was achieved in different operas in different ways, but in some of them, especially in "Hypermnestra", signs of Gluck's future opera reform have already appeared: a tendency to overcome external vocal virtuosity, a desire to increase the dramatic expressiveness of recitatives, to give the overture more significant content, organically connecting her with the opera itself. But Gluck was not yet able to become a reformer in his early operas. This was counteracted by the aesthetics of opera seria, as well as by the lack of creative maturity Gluck himself, who had not yet fully realized the need for opera reform.

And yet, between Gluck’s early operas and his reform operas, despite their fundamental differences, there is no impassable line. This is evidenced, for example, by the fact that Gluck used the music of early operas in the works of the reformist period, transferring into them individual melodic turns, and sometimes entire arias, but with a new text.

Creative work in England

In 1746, Gluck moved from Italy to England, where he continued to work on Italian opera. For London he wrote the operas seria Artamena and The Fall of the Giants. In the English capital, Gluck met with Handel, whose work made a great impression on him. However, Handel failed to appreciate his younger brother and once even said: “My cook Waltz knows counterpoint better than Gluck.” Handel's work served as an incentive for Gluck to realize the need for fundamental changes in the field of opera, since in Handel's operas Gluck noticed a clear desire to go beyond the standard scheme of opera seria, to make it dramatically more truthful. Influence operatic creativity Handel (especially late period) is one of the important factors in the preparation of Gluck's opera reform.

Meanwhile, in London, in order to attract a wide public to his concerts, greedy for sensational spectacles, Gluck did not shy away from external effects. For example, in one of the London newspapers on March 31, 1746, the following announcement was published: “In the great hall of Gickford, on Tuesday, April 14, Mr. Gluck, an opera composer, will give a musical concert with the participation of the best opera artists. By the way, he will perform, accompanied by an orchestra, a concerto for 26 glasses tuned with spring water: this is a new instrument of his own invention, on which the same things can be performed as on the violin or harpsichord. He hopes to satisfy the curious and music lovers in this way.”1

In this era, many artists were forced to resort to this method of attracting the public to a concert, in which, along with similar numbers, serious works were also performed.

After England, Gluck visited a number of other European countries(Germany, Denmark, Czech Republic). In Dresden, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Prague, he wrote and staged operas, dramatic serenades, worked with opera singers, and conducted.

French comic operas by Gluck

Next important period Gluck's creative activity is associated with work in the field of French comic opera for the French theater in Vienna, where he arrived after a number of years in different countries. Gluck was attracted to this work by Giacomo Durazzo, who was the intendant of the court theaters. Durazzo, ordering various scripts for comic operas from France, offered them to Gluck. Thus arose a whole series of French comic operas with music by Gluck, written between 1758 and 1764: “The Island of Merlin” (1758), “The Corrected Drunkard” (1760), “The Fooled Cadi” (1761), “An Unexpected Meeting, or Pilgrims from Mecca" (1764) and others. Some of them coincide in time with the reformist period in Gluck’s creative activity.

Work in the field of French comic opera played a very positive role in Gluck's creative life. He began to turn more freely to the true origins of folk song. New types of everyday plots and scenarios determined the growth of realistic elements in Gluck’s musical dramaturgy. Gluck's French comic operas are included in the general flow of development of this genre.

Work in the field of ballet

Along with operas, Gluck also worked on ballet. In 1761, his ballet “Don Juan” was staged in Vienna. In the early 60s of the 18th century, attempts were made in different countries to reform the ballet, to transform it from a divertissement into a dramatic pantomime with a certain developing plot.

The outstanding French choreographer Jean Georges Noverre (1727-1810) played a major role in the dramatization of the ballet genre. In Vienna in the early 60s, the composer worked with choreographer Gasparo Angiolini (1723-1796), who, along with Noverre, created a dramatic pantomime ballet. Together with Angiolini, Gluck wrote and directed his best ballet"Don Juan". Dramatization of ballet, expressive music that conveys great human passions and reveals already stylistic features Gluck's mature style, as well as his work in the field of comic opera, brought the composer closer to the dramatization of opera, to the creation of a great musical tragedy, which was the crown of his creative activity.

The beginning of reform activities

The beginning of Gluck's reform activities was marked by his collaboration with the Italian poet, playwright and librettist Raniero da Calzabigi (1714-1795) who lived in Vienna. Metastasio and Calzabigi were two various directions in opera librettism of the 18th century. Opposing the courtly-aristocratic aesthetics of Metastasio’s libretto, Calzabigi strove for simplicity and naturalness, for a truthful embodiment human passions, to freedom of composition dictated by developing dramatic action, and not by standard canons. Choosing ancient subjects for his librettos, Calzabigi interpreted them in the sublime ethical spirit characteristic of advanced classicism of the 18th century, investing in these themes high moral pathos and great civil and moral ideals. It was the commonality of the progressive aspirations of Calzabigi and Gluck that led them to rapprochement.

Reform operas of the Viennese period

October 5, 1762 was a significant date in the history of the opera house: on this day Gluck's Orpheus based on Calzabigi's text was staged for the first time in Vienna. This was the beginning of Gluck's operatic reform activities. Five years after Orpheus, on December 16, 1767, the first production of Gluck's opera Alceste (also based on Calzabigi's text) took place there, in Vienna. Gluck prefaced the score of Alceste with a dedication addressed to the Duke of Tuscany, in which he outlined the main provisions of his operatic reform. In Alceste, Gluck, even more consistently than in Orpheus, realized and put into practice the musical and dramatic principles that had finally developed in him by this time. Gluck's last opera staged in Vienna was Paris and Helen (1770), based on Calzabigi's text. In terms of integrity and unity of dramatic development, this opera is inferior to the two previous ones.

Living and working in Vienna in the 60s, Gluck reflected in his work the features of the Viennese classical style that was emerging during this period,1 which was finally formed in the music of Haydn and Mozart. The Overture to Alceste can serve as a characteristic example for the early period in the development of the Viennese classical school. But the features of Viennese classicism are organically intertwined in Gluck’s work with the influences of Italian and French music.

Reform activities in Paris

New and last period Gluck's creative activity began with his move to Paris in 1773. Although Gluck's operas were a significant success in Vienna, his reform ideas were not fully appreciated there; It was in the French capital - this citadel of advanced culture of that time - that he hoped to find a complete understanding of his creative ideas. Gluck's move to Paris - the largest center of operatic life in Europe at that time - was also facilitated by the patronage of Marie Antoinette, wife of the Dauphin of France, daughter of the Austrian Empress and former student of Gluck.

Gluck's Paris Operas

In April 1774, it took place in Paris in the " Royal Academy music"2 the first production of Gluck's new opera "Iphigenie in Aulis", the French libretto of which was written by Du Roullet based on Racine's tragedy of the same name. This was the type of opera that Diderot dreamed of almost twenty years ago. The enthusiasm generated by the production of Iphigenia in Paris was great. There were significantly more people in the theater than it could accommodate. The entire magazine and newspaper press was full of impressions from Gluck's new opera and the struggle of opinions around his operatic reform; They argued and talked about Gluck, and, naturally, his appearance in Paris was welcomed by encyclopedists. One of them, Melchior Grimm, wrote shortly after this significant production of Iphigenia in Aulis: “For fifteen days now, in Paris they have only been talking and dreaming about music. She is the subject of all our disputes, all our conversations, the soul of all our dinners; It even seems ridiculous to be interested in anything else. To a question related to politics, you are answered with a phrase from the doctrine of harmony; for moral reflection - with the arietka motif; and if you try to remind you of the interest aroused by this or that play of Racine or Voltaire, instead of any answer they will draw your attention to the orchestral effect in the beautiful recitative of Agamemnon. After all this, is it necessary to say that the reason for such fermentation of minds is the “Iphigenia” of the gentleman Gluck? This fermentation is all the more strong since opinions are extremely divided, and all parties are equally seized with rage. Of the disputants, three parties stand out especially sharply: adherents of the old the French opera, who swore an oath not to recognize other gods than Lully or Rameau; supporters of purely Italian music, who revere only the arias of Iomelli, Piccini or Sacchini; finally, the part of the gentleman Gluck, who believes that they have found the music most suitable for them; theatrical action“, music, the principles of which are drawn from the eternal source of harmony and the internal relationship of our feelings and sensations, music that does not belong to any particular country, but for the style of which the genius of the composer was able to take advantage of the peculiarities of our language.”

Gluck himself launched an active activity in the theater in order to destroy the prevailing routine and absurd conventions, do away with ingrained cliches and achieve dramatic truth in the staging and performance of operas. Gluck interfered with the stage behavior of the actors, forcing the choir to act and live on stage. In the name of implementing his principles, Gluck did not take into account any authorities or recognized names: for example, about the famous choreographer Gaston Vestris, he expressed himself very disrespectfully: “An artist who has all the knowledge in his heels has no right to kick in an opera like Armide.” .

The continuation and development of Gluck's reform activities in Paris was the production of the opera "Orpheus" in a new edition in August 1774, and in April 1776 - the production of the opera "Alceste", also in a new edition. Both operas, translated into French, underwent significant changes in relation to the conditions of the Parisian opera house. The ballet scenes were expanded, the part of Orpheus was transferred to the tenor, while in the first (Viennese) edition it was written for the viola and intended for the castrato2. In connection with this, Orpheus’s arias had to be transposed into other keys.

Productions of Gluck's operas brought the theatrical life of Paris into great excitement. Encyclopedists and representatives of advanced social circles spoke for Gluck; against him are conservative writers (for example, La Harpe and Marmontel). The debate became especially aggravated when the Italian opera composer Piccolo Piccini came to Paris in 1776, who played a positive role in the development of Italian buffa opera. In the field of opera seria, Piccini, while maintaining the traditional features of this movement, stood on the old positions. Therefore, Gluck's enemies decided to pit Piccini against him and incite rivalry between them. This controversy, which lasted for a number of years and subsided only after Gluck left Paris, was called the “war of the Gluckists and Piccinists.” The struggle of the parties that rallied around each composer did not affect the relations between the composers themselves. Piccini, who survived Gluck, said that he owed much to the latter, and indeed, in his opera Dido, Piccini used Gluck's operatic principles. Thus, the outbreak of the “war of Gluckists and Piccinists” was in fact an attack against Gluck by reactionaries in art, who made every effort to artificially inflate the largely imaginary rivalry between the two outstanding composers.

Gluck's last operas

Gluck's last reform operas staged in Paris were Armide (1777) and Iphigenia in Tauris (1779). “Armida” was written not in an ancient style (like other operas by Gluck), but on a medieval plot, borrowed from the famous poem of the 16th century Italian poet Torquato Tasso “Jerusalem Liberated”. “Iphigenia in Tauris” in its plot is a continuation of “Iphigenia in Aulis” (both operas have the same main character), but there is no musical commonality between them 2.

A few months after Iphigenia in Tauris, Gluck's last opera, Echo and Narcissus, a mythological tale, was staged in Paris. But this opera was a weak success.

The last years of his life Gluck was in Vienna, where the composer's creative work took place mainly in the field of song. Back in 1770, Gluck created several songs based on Klopstock's texts. Gluck did not realize his plan to write the German heroic opera “The Battle of Arminius” based on Klopstock’s text. Gluck died in Vienna on November 15, 1787.

Principles of opera reform

Gluck outlined the main provisions of his opera reform in the dedication preceded by the score of the opera Alceste. Here are a few of the most important provisions that most clearly characterize musical drama Gluck.

First of all, Gluck demanded truthfulness and simplicity from the opera. He ends his dedication with the words: “Simplicity, truth and naturalness - these are the three great principles of beauty in all works of art.”4 Music in opera should reveal the feelings, passions and experiences of the characters. That's why it exists; however, what is outside these requirements and serves only to delight the ears of music lovers with beautiful, but superficial melodies and vocal virtuosity, only gets in the way. This is how we must understand the following words of Gluck: “... I did not attach any value to the discovery of a new technique if it did not flow naturally from the situation and was not associated with expressiveness... the negation of a rule that I would not willingly sacrifice for the sake of the power of impression.” 2.

Synthesis of music and dramatic action. The main goal of Gluck's musical dramaturgy was the deepest, organic synthesis of music and dramatic action in opera. At the same time, music should be subordinated to the drama, sensitively respond to all dramatic vicissitudes, since music serves as a means of emotional disclosure mental life opera heroes.

In one of his letters, Gluck says: “I tried to be more of a painter or a poet than a musician. Before I start work, I try at all costs to forget that I am a musician.”3 Gluck, of course, never forgot that he was a musician; evidence of this is his excellent music, which has high artistic merit. The above statement should be understood precisely in this way: in Gluck’s reform operas music did not exist on its own, outside of dramatic action; it was needed only to express the latter.

A. P. Serov wrote about this: “... a thinking artist, when creating an opera, remembers one thing: about his task, about his object, about the characters of the characters, about their dramatic clashes, about the coloring of each scene, in its general and in particular, about the intelligence of every detail, about the impression on the viewer-listener in every at the moment; about the rest, so important for small musicians, the thinking artist does not care at all, because these worries, reminding him that he is a “musician,” would distract him from the goal, from the task, from the object, would make him refined, affected.”

Interpretation of arias and recitatives

Gluck subordinates all the elements of an opera performance to the main goal, the connection between music and dramatic action. His aria ceases to be a purely concert number demonstrating the vocal art of the singers: it is organically included in the development of dramatic action and is built not according to the usual standard, but in accordance with the state of feelings and experiences of the hero performing this aria. Recitatives in traditional opera seria, almost devoid of musical content, served only as a necessary link between concert numbers; in addition, the action developed precisely in the recitatives, but stopped in the arias. In Gluck's operas, the recitatives are distinguished by musical expressiveness, approaching aria singing, although they are not formalized into a complete aria.

Thus, the previously existing sharp line between musical numbers and recitatives is erased: arias, recitatives, choruses, while maintaining independent functions, are at the same time combined into large dramatic scenes. Examples include: the first scene from “Orpheus” (at the tomb of Eurydice), the first scene of the second act from the same opera (in the underworld), many pages in the operas “Alceste”, “Iphigenia in Aulis”, “Iphigenia in Tauris”.

Overture

The overture in Gluck's operas, in its general content and character of the images, embodies the dramatic idea of ​​the work. In the preface to Alceste, Gluck writes: “I believed that the overture should, as it were, warn the audience about the nature of the action that would unfold before their eyes...”1. In Orpheus, the overture in ideological and figurative terms is not yet connected with the opera itself. But the overtures from Alceste and Iphigenia in Aulis are symphonic generalizations of the dramatic ideas of these operas.

Gluck emphasizes the direct connection of each of these overtures with the opera by not giving them an independent conclusion, but immediately transferring them into the first act2. In addition, the overture to “Iphigenia in Aulis” has a thematic connection with the opera: the aria of Agamemnon (father of Iphigenia), which begins the first act, is based on the music of the opening section.

“Iphigenia in Tauris” begins with a short introduction (“Silence. Storm”), which directly leads into the first act.

Ballet

As already mentioned, Gluck does not abandon ballet in his operas. On the contrary, in the Paris editions of Orpheus and Alceste (compared to the Viennese ones) he even expands the ballet scenes. But Gluck’s ballet, as a rule, is not an inserted divertissement unrelated to the action of the opera. The ballet in Gluck's operas is mostly motivated by the course of dramatic action. Examples include the demonic dance of the Furies from the second act of Orpheus or the ballet celebrating the recovery of Admetus in the opera Alceste. Only at the end of some operas does Gluck place a large divertissement after an unexpectedly happy ending, but this is an inevitable tribute to the tradition common in that era.

Typical plots and their interpretation

The libretto of Gluck's operas was based on ancient and medieval subjects. However, the antiquity in Gluck's operas was not similar to the court masquerade that dominated Italian opera seria and especially French lyric tragedy.

Antiquity in Gluck's operas was a manifestation of the characteristic tendencies of classicism of the 18th century, imbued with the republican spirit and played a role in the ideological preparation of the French bourgeois revolution, which, according to K. Marx, draped itself, “alternately in the costume of the Roman Republic and in the costume of the Roman Empire”1. This is precisely the classicism that leads to the creativity of the tribunes french revolution- the poet Chenier, the painter David and the composer Gossec. Therefore, it is no coincidence that some melodies from Gluck’s operas, especially the chorus from the opera Armida, were heard on the streets and squares of Paris during revolutionary festivities and demonstrations.

Having abandoned the interpretation of ancient plots typical of courtly aristocratic opera, Gluck introduces civil motives into his operas: marital fidelity and readiness for self-sacrifice to save lives loved one(“Orpheus” and “Alceste”), the heroic desire to sacrifice oneself for the sake of delivering one’s people from the misfortune that threatens them (“Iphigenia in Aulis”). Such a new interpretation of ancient plots can explain the success of Gluck's operas among the advanced part of French society on the eve of the revolution, including among the encyclopedists who raised Gluck to their shield.

The limitations of Gluck's operatic dramaturgy

However, despite the interpretation of ancient plots in the spirit of the progressive ideals of his time, it is necessary to point out the historically determined limitations of Gluck’s operatic dramaturgy. It is determined by the same ancient scenes. Gluck's heroes have a somewhat abstract character: they are not so much living people with individual characters, multifaceted, as generalized bearers of certain feelings and passions.

Gluck also could not completely abandon the traditional conventional forms and customs of opera. art XVIII century. Thus, contrary to well-known mythological plots, Gluck ends his operas with a happy ending. In Orpheus (as opposed to the myth where Orpheus loses Eurydice forever), Gluck and Calzabigi force Cupid to touch the dead Eurydice and awaken her to life. In "Alceste" unexpected appearance Hercules, who entered into battle with the forces of the underworld, frees the spouses from eternal separation. All this was required by the traditional opera aesthetics of the 18th century: no matter how tragic the content of the opera, the end had to be happy.

Gluck Musical Theater

The greatest impressive power of Gluck's operas precisely in the theater was perfectly realized by the composer himself, who responded to his critics in the following way: “You didn’t like it in the theater? No? So what's the matter? If I succeeded in anything in the theater, it means I achieved the goal I set for myself; I swear to you, I care little whether people find me pleasant in a salon or at a concert. Your words seem to me like the question of a man who, having climbed onto the high gallery of the Dome of the Invalides, would shout from there to the artist standing below: “Sir, what did you want to depict here? Is this a nose? Is this a hand? It’s not like either one or the other!” The artist, for his part, should have shouted to him with much greater right: “Hey, sir, come down and look - then you will see!”1.

Gluck's music is in unity with the monumental character of the performance as a whole. There are no roulades or decorations in it, everything is strict, simple and written in broad, large strokes. Each aria represents the embodiment of one passion, one feeling. At the same time, there is no melodramatic strain or tearful sentimentality anywhere. Gluck's sense of artistic proportion and nobility of expression never betrayed him in his reform operas. This noble simplicity, without frills or effects, is reminiscent of the harmonious forms of ancient sculpture.

Gluck's recitative

The dramatic expressiveness of Gluck's recitatives is a great achievement in the field of opera. If many arias express one state, then the recitative usually conveys the dynamics of feelings, transitions from one state to another. In this regard, Alceste’s monologue in the third act of the opera (at the gates of Hades) is noteworthy, where Alceste strives to go into the world of shadows to give life to Admetus, but cannot decide to do so; the struggle of conflicting feelings is conveyed with great force in this scene. The orchestra also has a fairly expressive function, actively participating in creating the overall mood. Similar recitative scenes are found in other reform operas by Gluck2.

Choirs

A large place in Gluck's operas is occupied by choirs, which are organically included, along with arias and recitatives, in the dramatic fabric of the opera. Recitatives, arias and choruses together form a large, monumental operatic composition.

Conclusion

Musical influence Gluck's life spread to Vienna, where he ended his days peacefully. TO end of the XVIII century, an amazing spiritual community of musicians developed in Vienna, which later received the name “Viennese classical school”. Three great masters are usually included in it: Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Glitch, in terms of the style and direction of his creativity, also seems to belong here. But if Haydn, the eldest of the classical triad, was affectionately called “Papa Haydn,” then Gluck belonged to a different generation altogether: he was 42 years older than Mozart and 56 years older than Beethoven! Therefore, he stood somewhat apart. The rest were either in friendly relations (Haydn and Mozart), or in teacher-student relations (Haydn and Beethoven). Classicism Viennese composers had nothing to do with decorous court art. It was classicism, imbued with freethinking, reaching the point of fighting against God, and self-irony, and a spirit of tolerance. Perhaps the main properties of their music are cheerfulness and gaiety, based on faith in the ultimate triumph of good. God does not leave this music, but man becomes its center. Favorite genres include opera and its related symphony, where the main theme is human destinies and feelings. The symmetry of perfectly calibrated musical forms, the clarity of a regular rhythm, the brightness of unique melodies and themes - everything is aimed at the perception of the listener, everything takes into account his psychology. How could it be otherwise, if in any treatise on music you can find words that the main goal of this art is to express feelings and give people pleasure? Meanwhile, quite recently, in the era of Bach, it was believed that music should, first of all, instill in a person reverence for God. Viennese classics raised purely instrumental music, which was previously considered secondary to church and stage music, to unprecedented heights.

Literature:

1. Hoffman E.-T.-A. Selected works. - M.: Music, 1989.

2. Pokrovsky B. “Conversations about Opera”, M., Education, 1981.

3. Knights S. Christoph Willibald Gluck. - M.: Music, 1987.

4. Collection "Opera librettos", T.2, M., Music, 1985.

5. Tarakanov B., " Music reviews", M., Internet-REDI, 1998.

Gluck, Christoph Willibald (1714–1787), German composer, opera reformer, one of the greatest masters of the era of classicism. Born on July 2, 1714 in Erasbach (Bavaria), in the family of a forester; Gluck's ancestors came from Northern Bohemia and lived on the lands of Prince Lobkowicz. Gluck was three years old when the family returned to their homeland; he studied at the schools of Kamnitz and Albersdorf. In 1732 he went to Prague, where, apparently, he attended lectures at the university, earning a living by singing in church choirs and playing the violin and cello. According to some reports, he took lessons from the Czech composer B. Montenegrin (1684–1742).

In 1736, Gluck arrived in Vienna in the retinue of Prince Lobkowitz, but the very next year he moved to the chapel of the Italian Prince Melzi and followed him to Milan. Here Gluck studied composition for three years with the great master of chamber genres G.B. Sammartini (1698–1775), and at the end of 1741 the premiere of Gluck’s first opera Artaxerxes took place in Milan. Then he led a life usual for a successful Italian composer, i.e. continuously composed operas and pasticcios (opera performances in which the music is composed of fragments from various operas by one or more authors). In 1745, Gluck accompanied Prince Lobkowitz on his trip to London; their path lay through Paris, where Gluck first heard the operas of J.F. Rameau (1683–1764) and highly appreciated them. In London, Gluck met with Handel and T. Arn, staged two of his pasticcios (one of them, The Fall of the Giants, La Caduta dei Giganti, is a play on the topic of the day: we're talking about about the suppression of the Jacobite uprising), gave a concert in which he played a glass harmonica of his own design, and published six trio sonatas. In the second half of 1746, the composer was already in Hamburg, as conductor and choirmaster of the Italian opera troupe P. Mingotti. Until 1750, Gluck traveled with this troupe to different cities and countries, composing and staging his operas. In 1750 he married and settled in Vienna.

None of Gluck's operas of the early period fully revealed the scale of his talent, but nevertheless, by 1750 his name already enjoyed a certain fame. In 1752, the Neapolitan San Carlo Theater commissioned him the opera La Clemenza di Tito (La Clemenza di Tito) to a libretto by the major playwright of that era, Metastasio. Gluck conducted himself, and aroused both keen interest and jealousy of local musicians and received praise from the venerable composer and teacher F. Durante (1684–1755). Upon returning to Vienna in 1753, he became bandmaster at the court of the Prince of Saxe-Hildburghausen and remained in this position until 1760. In 1757, Pope Benedict XIV awarded the composer the title of knight and awarded him the Order of the Golden Spur: from then on the musician signed himself - “Cavalier Gluck” ( Ritter von Gluck).

During this period, the composer became surrounded by a new manager Viennese theaters Count Durazzo and composed a lot both for the court and for the count himself; in 1754 Gluck was appointed conductor of the court opera. After 1758, he worked hard to create works based on French librettos in the style of French comic opera, which was propagated in Vienna by the Austrian envoy in Paris (meaning such operas as Merlin's Island, L "Isle de Merlin; The Imaginary Slave, La fausse esclave; Fooled Cadi, Le cadi dup). The dream of “opera reform,” the goal of which was the restoration of drama, originated in Northern Italy and dominated the minds of Gluck’s contemporaries, and these trends were especially strong at the Parma court, where French influence played a large role. Genoa; the years of Gluck’s creative development were spent in Milan; they were joined by two more artists originally from Italy, but with experience in theaters of different countries - the poet R. Calzabigi and the choreographer G. Angioli. Thus, a “team” of gifted and intelligent people was formed. people who were influential enough to put their common ideas into practice. The first fruit of their collaboration was the ballet Don Juan (1761), then Orpheus and Euridice (1762) and Alceste (1767) were born - Gluck's first reform operas.

In the preface to Alceste's score, Gluck formulates his operatic principles: the subordination of musical beauty to dramatic truth; the destruction of thoughtless vocal virtuosity, all kinds of inorganic insertions into the musical action; interpretation of the overture as an introduction to the drama. In essence, all this already existed in modern French opera, and since the Austrian princess Marie Antoinette, who had previously taken singing lessons from Gluck, then became the wife of the French monarch, it is not surprising that Gluck was soon commissioned for a number of operas for Paris. The premiere of the first, Iphignie en Aulide, was conducted by the author in 1774 and served as the occasion for a fierce battle of opinions, a real battle between supporters of French and Italian opera, which lasted about five years. During this time, Gluck staged two more operas in Paris - Armide (Armide, 1777) and Iphignie en Tauride (1779), and also reworked Orpheus and Alceste for the French stage. Fanatics of Italian opera specially invited composer N. Piccinni (1772–1800) to Paris, who was a talented musician, but still could not withstand the competition with the genius of Gluck. At the end of 1779 Gluck returned to Vienna. Gluck died in Vienna on November 15, 1787.

Date of birth: July 2, 1714.
Date of death: November 15, 1787.
Place of birth: Erasbach, Bavaria.

Gluck Christoph Willibald- a famous composer who worked in Austria. Also Christoph Gluck known as a reformer of Italian opera.

Christophe was born in Bavaria, in the family of a forester. Since childhood, the boy was fascinated by music, but his father did not share this passion and did not allow the idea that his first-born would become a musician.

The teenager completed his studies at the Jesuit Academy and left home. By the age of seventeen he reached Prague and was able to enter the university, the Faculty of Philosophy.

To earn extra money, he was a singer in church and played the violin as part of traveling musical groups. Nevertheless, he found time for music lessons, which were given to him by the composer B. Chernogorsky.

After completing his studies, Christophe went to Vienna, and there A. Melzi was invited to become a court musician at the chapel in Milan. Having gone there, the young man gained knowledge not only in the theory of composition, but also studied many operas by the most outstanding masters of this genre. Soon Christophe himself created the opera, and it was staged in Milan.

The premiere was a success, new orders followed and four more equally successful operas were written. Having become successful, the composer went on tour to London and then to Vienna.

Soon he decided to stay in Vienna for good and accepted the offer of Prince Saxe-Hildburghausen to become conductor of his orchestra. Every week this orchestra gave a concert at which the Sami performed various works.

Christophe, as a leader, sometimes also stood at the conductor’s stand, sang, played the different instruments. Soon the composer began to direct the court opera. He became one of its reformers and popularizers of French opera.

He was able to transform the comedy genre into a dramatically directed genre. In addition, he taught music to Archduchess Marie Antoinette. When she married the French heir, she invited her teacher to move to Paris.

There he continued to stage operas and create new ones. In Paris he created his best work- “Iphigenia in Tauris.” After the premiere of the composer's last opera, he suffered a stroke.

Two years later, another one happened, which could not but affect the ability to work.

However, he created a small piece that was performed on the day of his funeral in 1787.

Achievements of Christophe Gluck:

Reformer of Italian and French opera
Created about 50 operas
Author of a number of works for orchestra
Was the inspiration of Schumann, Beethoven, Berlioz

Dates from the biography of Christoph Gluck:

1714 born
1731 settled in Prague
1736 moved to Vienna
1741 first production of the opera in Italy
1745 tour in London
1752 settled in Vienna
1756 received the Order of the Golden Spur
1779 stroke
died 1787