1760 – 1780 Reform Opera

1756-73 Seven Years War, Prussia & England vs Austria & France

1760-1820 George III, England

1774-92 Louis XVI, France

1776 American Revolution

This is the generation of Gluck's reform opera, first in Vienna, then in Paris. It is also the generation of Mozart's youth and Haydn's formal development of what became of the classical symphony. Bach's children and the later Mannheimers are also prominent.

Vocal Music

Reform opera

No longer guaranteed success in opera seria, Gluck composing in Vienna, wrote the dramatic ballet Don Juan (1761) which was greatly influenced by Jean-Georges Noverre's (1727-1810) treatise Lettre sur la danse (1760) emphasizing mime and gesture. Then with Ranieri de' Calzabigi (1714-95), librettist, he composed Orfeo ed Euridice (1762), the first reform opera. His reforms included

(a) important use of chorus and ballet,

(b) flexible aria forms from opera buffa,

(c) orchestral recitative,

(d) decreased use of vocal ornamentation and cadenzas, and

(e) a return to Greek myth plots.

Other Italian operas with Calzabigi were Alceste (1767) and Paride ed Elena (1769). When the latter was not successful, Gluck moved to Paris where he achieved success in French with Iphegenie en Aulide (1774), Armide (1777) and Iphegenie en Tauride (1779). He adapted Orphée et Euridice (1774) by changing Orfeo from an alto castrato to a tenor, and Alceste (1776).

Opera seria

The stagnant condition of opera seria is well illustrated in the repeated settings of Metastasio's libretti: his Poro or Alessandro nell'Indie was composed by Porpora, Hasse and Handel in 1731, Gluck in 1764, Johann Christian Bach (1735-82) in 1762, Antonio Sacchini (1730-86) in 1763, Piccinni in 1774 and Cimarosa in 1781.

Opéra-comique

With librettos by Charles Simon Favart (1710-92), it used spoken dialogue, simple ariettes and no ensembles or choruses. Examples were Recontre imprévue (1764) by Gluck, Tom Jones (1765) by F. A. Danican Philidor (1726-95), Le Déserteur (1769) by Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny (1729-1817) and Zemire et Azor (1769) by André Ernest Gretry (1742-1813).

Singspiel

Modeled after the opéra-comique, it included some ensembles and choruses. Examples were Die Jagd (1770) by Johann Adam Hiller (1728-1804) and Bastien und Bastienne (1768) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91).

Melodrama

First used in Rousseau's Pygmalion (1762), it consisted of spoken dialogue with orchestral background. Other examples were Ariadne auf Naxos (1775) and Medea (1778) by Georg Benda (1722-95) and Mozart's unfinished Zaide (1779).