Christoph Willibald Gluck

Christoph Willibald (von) Gluck (2 July 1714 - 15 November 1787) was a German composer, one of the most important opera composers of the Classical music era, particularly remembered for Orfeo ed Euridice. Gluck's operatic reforms, eliminating all that was undramatic, were a turning point in the history of the medium. Gluck's musical legacy was around 35 complete operas, together with numerous ballets and instrumental works. His reforms influenced Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, particularly his opera Idomeneo (1781).