Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787) - photo 1
Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787) - photo 2
Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787) - photo 3

Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787)

Lot 41
11.12.2024 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
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CHRISTIE'S
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
Buyer Premiumsee on Website%
ID 1349669
Lot 41 | Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787)
Estimate value
£ 3 000 – 4 000
Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787)
Letter signed ('Chevalier Gluck', with autograph date and subscription) to [the librettist Valadier], Vienna, 1 May 1785
In French. Two pages, 225 x 176mm, bifolium, annotated (by recipient?) on verso of f.2 'Glouk'.

Declining to set Valadier's opera Cora to music. Gluck expresses his mortification at being unable to comply: 'I am absolutely incapable of undertaking any work at all which requires application', and he is unwilling to oversee another composer in the work because of the difficulties of such an enterprise, and because the person he might have turned to is already overburdened. Nevertheless he praises Valadier's libretto: 'Your work is rich in tableaux and in theatrical effects, and as regards a few small alterations which might be suitable, we would need to be near one another in order to discuss them ... Given that Cora is your first dramatic work I assure you that you have made a most happy beginning; and by continuing to exercise your talents in this career, as I advise you to do, you may hope for the most decided success'. He concludes with thanks to Valadier for thinking of him, and good wishes in finding 'some composer who may second by his good music the beauty of your opera'.

Gluck had virtually retired from composition after his return to Vienna in 1779, and systematically refused all libretti that were offered to him. The libretto by Valadier (his first name is unknown) for Cora, based on the novel Les Incas by Marmontel, had won a prize at the Académie royale in 1783: it was eventually set to music by Méhul, and premiered on 15 February 1791, though without success. Collected correspondence (1963), 204.
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
11.12.2024 – 11.12.2024
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
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