CALZABIGI, RANIERI

born Dec. 23, 1714, Livorno, Tuscany died July 1795, Naples Italian poet, librettist, and music theorist who exerted an important influence on Christoph Willibald Gluck's reforms in opera. While in Vienna during February 1761, Calzabigi was introduced to Gluck; on the following October 17 a performance was given of their first work of collaboration, the dramatic ballet Le Festin de pierre (Don Juan). Gluck later composed the music for the dance drama Semiramide (1765) to Calzabigi's scenario. Together they wrote the three Italian reform operas: Orfeo ed Euridice (1762), Alceste (1767), and Paride ed Elena (1770); in each, they aimed for simplicity, truth, and naturalness (demands that primarily affected the libretto) in the tradition of the classical drama, emphasizing the purely human element. Calzabigi, whom Gluck credited as being the chief stimulus to opera reform, returned to Italy in 1780.