Original portrait painting after the well known painting by Étienne Aubry (1745-1781) held at the Louvre in Paris. Oil on board. Unsigned

[?]Paris, 19th century. 61 x 47.3 cms, with frame 69.5 x 56 cms.

The composer is depicted bust-length, turned 3/4 left, facing forward, wearing a red jacket, blue waistcoat, white collared blouse with lace, and wig. For a fine full-page color illustration of the original held at the Louvre, see MGG Vol. 5, plate 15.

"Gluck was recognized as an extraordinary phenomenon in his lifetime, as is evident from Burney’s deferential treatment of the composer during his visit to Vienna in 1772. Shortly afterwards the controversy stirred in French journals resonated well beyond the capital to other countries. The daily cultural discourse of (truncated) Paris concerned Gluck’s ‘musical revolution’, a catch-phrase taken up by Gluck’s opponents, such as Jean-François Marmontel, as well as by his defenders; in 1781, the ‘revolution worked in music by M. le Chevalier Gluck’ (later dubbed the ‘German Orpheus’) was used as the title of a collection of pamphlets for and against Gluck, with a heavy editorial bias in favour (Lesure, c1984). Although operas by Piccinni, Salieri and especially Sacchini, as well as French contemporaries such as Grétry, continued alongside Gluck in the French repertoire beyond the Revolution and Empire, revivals of Gluck constituted the principal touchstone of dramatic music into the 1820s, when the last routine revivals were acclaimed by Berlioz. Opera composers including Salieri, Lemoyne and Vogel in Paris were presented, or presented themselves, as his legitimate successors; elsewhere Mozart, especially in Idomeneo, and J.M. Kraus, were strongly affected by Gluck’s example, in constructing scenes, applying a dramatically motivated admixture of lyricism and more direct and declamatory vocal expression, and sometimes in modelling, as when the statue in Don Giovanni adopts the tone of the oracle in Alceste. After his death, his direct effect can still be heard in Die Zauberflöte and in several French operas, including those of Méhul, Cherubini and Spontini.

Among the Romantics he continued to inspire respect and, from Berlioz and Wagner, emulation. Berlioz supervised productions of Orphée and Alceste in Paris (1859 and 1866). In Orphée Berlioz created the basis for the version most used over the next century at least, by restoring the Italian key-scheme in several scenes to accomodate the tessitura of the title role to a female singer; Pauline Viardot was the first in a line to include Giulia Ravoli, Kathleen Ferrier, Janet Baker and others, although the French version with tenor retained some currency. Musicians close to Berlioz began to realize his ideal of a complete critical edition, although only a handful of ‘reform’ operas were published. Wagner wrote about Gluck in Oper und Drama, having learned much from deep study of Iphigénie en Aulide, of which he made a modernized performing version (Dresden, 1847). In 1890, for Weimar, Richard Strauss similarly adapted Iphigénie en Tauride. Such orchestrational revision, and the melding of recitative and aria to blur Gluck’s structure of closed forms, represented a style of musical archaeology from which Handel and Mozart also suffered, or, in terms of public exposure, benefited. The later 20th century witnessed not only numerous revivals of the reform operas, some in musically authentic form and including the Vienna Orfeo, but also a less one-sided critical view of Gluck became possible with the publication of a new critical edition and a revival of interest in works in other genres, especially opéra comique and, with Don Juan, ballet. Winton Dean has observed that Gluck’s compromise between the demands of words and music ‘was one of the most satisfying and successful of all, and has placed his greatest works beyond the reach of time’ (Grove6). None of Gluck’s operas, except Orfeo/Orphée, is likely to become a staple work in the repertory; however, to the extent that every production has the aspect of a revival, continued interest in his achievement, and consequently revival of an increasing proportion of his output, is guaranteed so long as opera continues to occupy a central place in Western musical culture." Julian Rushton in Grove Music Online. (Inventory #: 40422)