Gluck: An Eighteenth-Century Portrait in Letters and Documents

Christoph Willibald Gluck took the most hidebound musical conventions and shook opera free of them. Celebrated today for his historical significance, as the one composer who did most to effect the transition between baroque and classical opera, Gluck in his lifetime was both a controversial figure and a colourful one: the sources portray a man of enormous energy, relish for good food and good company, and passion for his art.

This book brings together a variety of eighteenth century sources in an attempt to construct a portrait of Gluck - the eccentric genius with a larger-than-life character. Based primarily on Gluck's vast body of letters to and from his friends and colleagues, the book also includes a wealth of factual documents and informal anecdotes, not easily accessible in the original German, French and Italian , almost none of which has ever been translated.