ABSTRACT
By taking a cultural approach to the quarrel between Gluckists and Piccinnists, the author demonstrates that the very labels are problematic, because they were constructed over time during a process of dynamic opposition between individuals and approaches which only gradually coalesced into opposing musical philosophies. He demonstrates how the process of assimilation of Gluck is bound up with transfers between England and France, and have tried to demonstrate how the images of Shakespeare and Gluck are refined with respect to one another in late 1776. It is noteworthy that the first wave of reform to the Opera was sponsored by Marie-Antoinette and that opposition to this was fashioned out of cultural fault lines at court, the anti-Gluck party, which at first had no alternatives of its own to propose, being centred around Du Barry. In correspondence with Abbe Galiani, Madame d'Epinay stated that the Quarrel nearly ruined the Opera in general and De Vismes in particular.
