Christoph Willibald von Gluck

Christoph Willibald von Gluck, a forester's son born in 1714 in a Bavarian village near the Bohemian border, spent his career in the opera business, working in Milan, London, Vienna, and finally Paris. By the time he reached the top of that world, he had decided it was broken: opera had become a parade of vocal showing off, with the story buried underneath.

His answer was reform. Starting with Orfeo ed Euridice in Vienna in 1762, he stripped opera down so that the music served the drama, with plain, direct melodies and choruses that push the story forward. In Paris his operas stirred a genuine public feud between his supporters and fans of the older Italian style. He died in Vienna in 1787.

Start with Orfeo ed Euridice, his retelling of Orpheus descending to the underworld to bring back his wife. It is short by opera standards and its grief still reads instantly.