e,' an opera cast in a somewhat lighter mould, which was
produced in 1779, seems to have failed to please, and 'Iphigenie en
Tauride' may be safely taken as the climax of Gluck's career. It is the
happiest example of his peculiar power, and shows more convincingly than
any of its predecessors where the secret of his greatness really lay. He
was the first composer who treated an opera as an integral whole. He was
inferior to many of his predecessors, notably to Handel, in musical
science, and even in power of characterisation. But while their works
were often hardly more than strings of detached scenes from which the
airs might often be dissociated without much loss of effect, his operas
were constructed upon a principle of dramatic unity which forbade one
link to be taken from the chain without injuring the continuity of the
whole. In purely technical matters, too, his reforms were far-reaching
and important. He was first to make the overture in some sort a
reflection of the drama which it preceded, and he used orchestral
effects as a means of expressing the passion of his characters in a way
that had not been dreamed of before. He dismissed the harpsichord from
the orchestra, and strengthened his band with clarinets, an instrument
unknown to Handel. His banishment of _recitativo secco_, and his
restoration of the chorus to its proper place in the drama, were
innovations of vast importance to the history of opera, but the chief
strength of the influence which he exerted upon subsequent music lay in
his power of suffusing each of his operas in an atmosphere special to
itself.

CHAPTER III

OPERA BUFFA, OPERA COMIQUE, AND SINGSPIEL

PERGOLESI--ROUSSEAU--MONSIGNY--GRETRY--

CIMAROSA--HILLER

While Gluck was altering the course of musical history in Vienna,
another revolution, less grand in scope and more gradually accomplished,
but scarcely less important in its results, was being effected in Italy.
This was the development of opera buffa, a form of art which was
destined, in Italy at any rate, to become a serious rival to the older
institution of opera seria, and, in the hands of Mozart, to produce
masterpieces such as the world had certainly not known before his day,
nor is ever likely to see surpassed. There is some uncertainty about the
actual origin of opera buffa. A musical comedy by Vergilio Mazzocchi and
Mario Marazzoli, entitled 'Chi sofre speri,' was produced in Florence
under the patronage of Cardi