Which composer wrote the opera Orfeo ed Euridice, first performed in Vienna in 1762?

Christoph Willibald Gluck wrote the opera Orfeo ed Euridice, first performed in Vienna in 1762.

The opera retells the Greek myth of Orpheus, who travels to the underworld to recover his wife Eurydice. Gluck’s version was created with Italian libretto by Ranieri de’ Calzabigi and premiered at Vienna’s Burgtheater on 5 October 1762.

The work is central to Gluck’s operatic reforms. He aimed to make music serve the drama more directly, reducing elaborate vocal display when it distracted from the story and giving greater importance to clear expression and dramatic continuity.

This opera is often confused with Claudio Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, composed in 1607. They tell related versions of the same myth, but they are different operas by different composers. Gluck later revised Orfeo ed Euridice for Paris in 1774, expanding the role of Orpheus and adapting the music to French operatic conventions.