A study of Gluck's one-act Viennese serenatas

Christoph Willibald Gluck composed 6 one-act works in Vienna, which are occasional works praising the Imperial family. These works belong to the genre of serenata; however, they do not have the same designation at all. Actually, these designations are 'festa teatrale', 'azione teatrale', 'componimento drammatico', and 'serenata'. This thesis discusses these differrent designations. Did the contemporary librettists, the composer (Gluck), and the audience recognize the difference among the designations? The court poet Metastasio who wrote 4 works changed at least the style of the serenata according to its designation. On the whole, the audience perceived that these serenatas were 'little operas'. On the other hand, Gluck's autographs of 6 works have been lost entirely. Therefore, we are unable to know Gluck understood the designations as a composer, when he delivered his works from the librettists to the audience. The stylistic study will clear up this problem. It will also elucidate the relations between Gluck's serenatas and 'azione teatrale' <Orfeo ed Euridice> (3 acts), which was produced in 1762 an d evaluated as a 'reform opera'