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Christoph Willibald Gluck, Composer
(1714-1787). Gluck stands as one of the pivotal figures in the history of Opera. He insisted that opera was neither a play nor a musical form, but music drama. Gluck stipped away the excesses of baroque opera, laying down principles which had a lasting influence and impact on the thinking of Berlioz and Wagner. Both men, after having seen Gluck's Iphigenie en Tauride, dedicated their lives to music. Composer, teacher, and writer Sir Charles Villiers Stanford gives us one of the most eloquent...
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