ABSTRACT
A staggering amount of literature in many languages exists on Gluck and his reform of the opera; this literature began primarily as a result of the famous war between Gluck and Piccinni in Paris in the 1770s and has continued, more or less unabated, ever since. On 17 October 1761, Gluck produced Don Juan, a tragic ballet, at the Vienna Court Opera which was received with mixed feelings. On 5 October 1762, the team of Calzabigi and Gluck produced Orfeo ed Euridice, which is generally regarded as the official beginning of the Gluckian operatic reform. The arena was moved from Vienna to Paris, where Gluck produced Iphigenie en Aulidein April 1774. Meanwhile, in 1776, Paris had requested a new opera from Gluck entitled Roland. It is quite obvious that the opera that Gluck was trying to reform was the opera seria, and it was also clear that once the Gluckian reform had been established, the opera seria was doomed.
