Born in Erasbach, Upper Palatinate on July 2, 1714;
died in Vienna on November 15, 1787

A Bohemian-Austrian composer of Italian and French opera, Christoph Gluck was a leading figure in opera in the later eighteenth century who played a significant role in effecting the transition from baroque to classical opera styles—most notably with such works as Orfeo ed Euridicie and Alceste.

Born in Bavaria in 1714, Gluck demonstrated musical abilities from an early age, playing both the violin and cello as well as singing. As a teenager he set off for Prague to devote himself to a musical career. He spent two years as a chamber musician in Vienna before being engaged to play in an orchestra in Milan, where he came into contact with Sammartini, a key figure in Italian music whose operas would strongly influence Gluck’s own early operatic efforts. In the years that followed he travelled widely across Europe—winning the approval of Louis XVI’s consort Marie Antoinette, who awarded him a substantial annual pension, and meeting Handel in London—before ultimately settling in Vienna, where lived until his death in 1787.

Gluck’s musical legacy includes dozens of operas as well as ballets and orchestral works, and his influence can be heard in the works of Mozart, Cherubini, Berlioz, and Wagner.