ClassicalChristoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald Gluck was born in Bavaria, Germany, more than three hundred years ago.
Christoph Willibald Gluck’s life
The big moments of this life, and what was happening in the world at the same time.
A life at a glance
- 1714👶 Birth
Born in Erasbach on 2 July, son of a forester
- 1719🌍 Meanwhile
Defoe publishes Robinson Crusoe
- 1731🧳 Journeyage 17
Runs away from home to study music in Prague
- 1737📚 Trainingage 23
Studies in Milan with Sammartini
- 1741🎼 Workage 27
First opera, Artaserse, in Milan
- 1750❤️ Private lifeage 36
Marries Maria Anna Bergin and settles in Vienna
- 1752🌍 Meanwhile
Franklin studies lightning with a kite
- 1754🎩 Careerage 40
Kapellmeister of the imperial court in Vienna
- 1762🎼 Workage 48
Orfeo ed Euridice: the birth of opera ‘reform’
- 1767🎼 Workage 53
Alceste and its manifesto preface
- 1776🏛️ Landmarkage 62
United States Declaration of Independence
- 1776🌍 Meanwhile
United States Declaration of Independence
- 1783🌍 Meanwhile
First manned flight in a hot-air balloon
- 1787🕯️ Deathage 73
Dies in Vienna on 15 November
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Excerpts of up to 90 seconds, freely licensed recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
Once upon a time…
Christoph Willibald Gluck was born in Bavaria, Germany, more than three hundred years ago. His dad was a forester and wanted him to do the same job. But Christoph loved music too much: he ran away from home to become a musician!
He travelled all over Europe writing operas. In London he even gave a concert making water-filled glasses sing.
Gluck thought the operas of his time were too complicated: the singers showed off too much and the story got lost. So he wrote Orpheus and Eurydice, simple, moving music that really tells the story.
He was music teacher to Marie Antoinette, future Queen of France, who later invited him to Paris.
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