Alceste. Tragédie-opéra en trois actes - Gluck, Christoph Willibald 1714-1787; Calzabigi, Ranieri de' 1714-1795; Du Roullet, François Louis Gaud Lebland Marquis 1716-1786 (Paris Lyon Bureau d'Abonnement Musical Castaud, 1777)
Alceste, Wq. 37 (the later French version is Wq. 44), is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck from 1767. The libretto (in Italian) was written by Ranieri de' Calzabigi and based on the play Alcestis by Euripides. The premiere of the Italian version took place on 26 December 1767 at the Burgtheater in Vienna.
Gluck recomposed and lengthened Alceste to a French libretto by François-Louis Gand Le Bland Du Roullet for performances at the Paris Opera, retaining the three-act structure. Hercules was added as a pivotal character in Act III, as was a scene at the Gates of Hell. With the presentations in Paris, Alceste became an essentially new work, the translation from Italian to French necessitating several changes in the musical declamation of text, and certain scenes significantly reorganized to new or altered music.
French version premiered at the Académie royale de musique, Paris, 1776
Keywords: Opéra-Comique (Paris, France); 18th Century (1701-1800); Vocal music; Opera; France