Alceste

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Alceste (Gr. Alkestis). Opera in 3 acts by Gluck, lib. by Calzabigi, after Euripides. Prod. Vienna 1767, London 1795; Wellesley Coll., Mass., 1938, NY Met 1941 (in Fr.). Fr. version rev. by Gluck with text by Du Roullet, prod. Paris 1776. Preface to score contains Gluck's famous declaration on the nature of opera, which adumbrates mus.-drama. Other operas on this subject by Lully (1674), Schweitzer (1773), Boughton (1922), and Wellesz (1923), among others. Handel wrote a masque, Alceste, to a lib. by T. Smollett.