GLUCK. [GERMANY.
In the style, however, which he had acquired, Gluck,
in 1764, composed his best pieces ; such as his operas of
Orpheus, Alceste, Helen and Paris, and the famous
drama, which, in 1765, was performed to celebrate the
marriage of the Emperor Joseph II. To give particular
eclat to this last production, the Arch-duchess Amelia
played the part of Apollo ; the Arch-duchesses Elizabeth,
Josephine, and Charlotte, the Graces; and the Archduke
Leopold, presided at the harpsichord.
Du Rollet, the judge, having formed an acquaintance
with Gluck, during his residence at Vienna, engaged
him, in 1772, to write for the Theatre at Paris ; this he
assented to do and, in 1774, at the age of sixty-two,
arrived in that city, where, under the protection of the
lamented Maria Antoinette, he composed his Iphigenia
en Aulide, and bearing down all opposition, procured its
representation on the 19th of April, 1776. It excited a
degree of enthusiasm which in no respect subsided
during the performance of his Orpheus, Alceste, Armide,
and Iphigenia en Tauride.
This success of this work operated as a decisive blow
to the ancient style of music employed on the tragic
stage, already excluded from the comic opera, by the
compositions of Dini, Philidor, and of Gretry; but, if
Gluck obtained an easy triumph over Lully and Rousseau,
he met with two formidable rivals in Sacchini and Piccini.
His rivalship with the latter, who arrived in France a
few years after himself, gave rise to the most animated
discussion ; the capital and the provinces were divided in
their opinion of these celebrated musicians : their parti-
zans formed a sect. They published against each other
innumerable epigrams, till at length, as if incapable of
deciding on their respective merits, the public resolved to