Christoph Willibald Gluck was a composer in the Classical era.. 

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He was born in 1714 in Germany. Gluck's father wanted him to be a forester like he was but Gluck had other ideas. When he was 14 he ran away from the family home and made his way toward Prague using his musical talent to get by. Gluck continued studying at university and then studied with an Italian composer named Sammartini. From there, Gluck began composing an opera or two every year and began to acheive success living in London, Paris and Vienna. Gluck is most famous for influencing the development of a type of opera called "opera seria". Opera seria literally means " serious opera". It was the opera which was popular in the courts of Europe and it featured stories about greek mythology, tragedies and the aristocracy. Gluck changed the style of these operas to be more dramatic musically. Gluck died from a series of strokes in 1781. 

 

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