For the discussion of the life, times, and music of Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck (1714-1787), one of the greatest and certainly the most undervalued composer of opera in the 18th century, a composer who was born the year after Handel wrote "Teseo" and who died the year after Mozart wrote "Le Nozze di Figaro", a composer who, more than any other, epitomizes and symbolizes the inexorable transition from the Baroque to the Classical.