Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: September 20, 2025
"Yes, maestro; you are free; your body is refreshed, and can bear the weight of that strong soul that has no infirmities to impede its flight. Fly, if you list to Calzabigi!" The door of the drawing-room bad scarcely opened before Calzabigi hastened forward to meet Gluck. But, seeing his wife, he stopped, and made a profound inclination. "Speak out, friend," cried Gluck merrily.
"We must try to forestall all these prejudices, and win the critics to the side of truth and real art," said Marianne. "The signora is right," said Calzabigi. "It is not so much for our own sake, as for the sake of art, that we should strive to have a fair hearing before the world. We have the powerful party of Metastasio and Hasse to gain. But I will deal with them myself.
On the other hand were Gluck and his friend Calzabigi, whose partisans disdained the old style, and lauded the new one to the skies. Gluck was perfectly indifferent to all this strife of party. Not once, since the first day of rehearsal, had his countenance lost its expression of calm and lofty security. Resolved to conquer, he receded before no obstacle.
In Calzabigi Gluck had met an author who fully appreciated his ideas, and had the talent of writing a libretto in accordance with them. This coadjutor wrote all the librettos that belonged to Gluck's greatest period.
But in 1762 came 'Orfeo ed Euridice, a work which placed Gluck at the head of all living operatic composers, and laid the foundation of the modern school of opera. The libretto of 'Orfeo' was by Calzabigi, a prominent man of letters, but it seems probable that Gluck's own share in it was not a small one.
"And have you found him?" asked Marianne, with a meaning smile. "I have. It is-" "Calzabigi," interrupted she. "How!" cried the fiery Gluck, "after promising secrecy, has he been unable to curb his tongue?" "Nonsense, Christopher! he has not said a word to me. I guessed this long ago." "And how comes it that you never hinted a word of it to ME?"
"She knows every thing, and think what a treasure of a wife she is! She has known it all along, without betraying herself by a word." "And does that surprise you?" answered Calzabigi, "It does not me, for well I know that the signora is an angel of prudence as well as of goodness. The signora will allow me to speak before her? Well, then, maestro, the die is cast.
Moreover, your majesty has rewarded the seventy years of Metastasio with a rich pension, proof enough to him of the estimation in which his talents are held. Metastasio belongs to the old regime you have pensioned off; Calzabigi and Gluck are children of our new Austria. Your majesty's self has created this Austria, and you owe to her children your imperial countenance and favor."
In our case, they have double provocation, for Calzabigi's poem is as original as my music. We have both striven for simplicity, nature, and truth; we have both discarded clap-trap of every sort. Oh, Calzabigi, my friend, how happy for me that I have found such a poet! If, through his 'Orpheus, Gluck is to attain fame, he well knows how much of it is due to the inspiration of your noble poem."
Word Of The Day
Others Looking