Although he is best known today for his opera Orpheus and Eurydice, Christoph Willibald Gluck held a special place in the 18th century for his reform of the genre. The son of a forester in the service of nobles, he was born in the Holy Roman Empire in Erasbach, near Berching (Upper Palatinate), on July 2, 1714, and grew up in his father's employ, in Reichstadt (Zákupy) in Bohemia, in Kreibitz, where he learned the violin and other instruments, then in Eisenberg (Jezeří), before leaving home at the age of fourteen to escape the prospect of his father's succession and pursue his musical passion in the open. For a time, he led an itinerant life, playing the Jew's harp in villages and singing in churches. In 1731, he moved to Prague and enrolled at university, taking courses in philosophy and mathematics, while continuing to improve his musical training with the violin, cello and organ, which he played at the church in Týn. Around 1735, he travelled to Vienna and met up again with one of his father's teachers, Prince Lobkowitz, with whom he entered the service as court musician. In a musical milieu dominated by fashionable Italian opera, the young Gluck went to the source, Milan, where in 1737 he joined the chapel orchestra of Prince Antonio Maria Melzi and studied composition with the illustrious Giovanni Battista Sammartini. He composed trio sonatas, which were published in London, and worked on his first opera, Artaserse, to a libretto by Métastase, premiered at Turin's Teatro Regio on December 26, 1741. Thanks to this initial success, commissions poured in, and Gluck continued in this vein with Demetrio (also known as Cleonice, Venice, May 2, 1742), Demofoonte (Milan, January 6, 1743), Arsace (Milan, 1743), Il Tigrane (Crema, September 9, 1743), La Sofonisba (or Siface, Milan, January 13, 1744), Ipermestra (Venice, November 21, 1744), Poro (Turin, December 26, 1744) and Ippolito (or Fedra, Milan, January 31, 1745). This early work, of which only fragments survive, respects the conventions of theopera seria, but with a personal stamp that prefigures his style, which was only just beginning to blossom. In 1745, at the invitation of Lord Middlesex, he travelled to London, where he composed for the King's Theatre, and the following year premiered La caduta de' giganti (January 28) and Artamene (March 15), without convincing local audiences. On March 25, he gave a concert with Handel, playing the glass harmonica. In 1747, Gluck joined the Mingotti brothers' touring troupe across Germany, composing Le nozze d'Ercole e d'Ebe for a royal wedding, which premiered in Pilnitz on June 29. Back in Vienna in 1748, he presented Empress Maria Theresa with his birthday present, La Semiramide riconosciuta, on May 14. He traveled to Hamburg and Copenhagen, where he composed La contesa de' numi (March 9, 1749) for the birth of the heir to the Christian crown. In 1750, he collaborated with Locatelli's troupe on Ezio, first performed at the Prague Carnival, then Issipile. On September 15, he married Maria Anna Pergin, daughter of a local merchant, in Vienna. In 1752, he was asked to compose an opera in honor of King Charles VII, La clemenza di Tito (November 4). After this period of European success, Gluck settled permanently in Vienna and found a position as Kapellmeister to Prince Joseph of Saxe-Hildburghausen, before being appointed Kapellmeister of the Imperial Theatres in 1756, a position which provided him with an annual pension. In the same year, Pope Benedict XIV ennobled him "Ritter von Gluck". In the French style, he composed the popular comedies Le cadi dupé (1761) and La rencontre imprévue (or Les Pèlerins de La Mecque, 1764). Above all, the composer set about reforming opera, with the support of Count Giacomo Durazzo and the help of choreographer Gasparo Angiolini. His contribution consisted in adapting librettos for the stage, reducing useless plots, recitatives and actionless virtuoso arias in favor of choruses and instrumental continuity, giving primacy to music over drama. The first and finest example remains Orfeo ed Euridice, premiered in Vienna on October 5, 1762 to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi, complete with ballet and chorus, with castrato Gatetano Guadagni as soloist. The partnership continued with Alceste (December 16, 1767) and Paride ed Elena (November 30, 1770). In 1773, invited by his former pupil Marie-Antoinette, he travelled to Paris for the French adaptation of Orphée et Eurydice, which premiered on August 2, 1774. At the same time, he premiered Iphigénie en Aulide (April 19), triggering a quarrel between the "gluckists" and the "piccinnists" (supporters of the traditionalopera seria in the manner of Nicola Piccinni), already prepared by François de Roullet's statements to the press prior to his arrival. He revised Alceste in 1776 and created Armide (September 23, 1777), then Iphigénie en Tauride (May 17, 1779), which met with unanimous approval, and finally Écho et Narcisse (September 24, 1779). Gluck's reform bears fruit through his influence on Mozart, Berlioz, Wagner and others. After suffering a stroke, he returned to Vienna and composed lieder, adopted his niece Marianne in 1781, and reduced his activity due to partial paralysis. He worked on a final opera, Les Danaïdes, before dying of a second stroke on November 15, 1787, at the age of 73.