For Parisian critics and audiences of the fin de siècle, Gluck was without doubt one of the great luminaries of music history, a name worthy of mention alongside Mozart or Rameau. As a cornerstone of French music history, he was a crucial to establishing and interpreting narratives of France's musical past. But just as important was Gluck's central role in defining the nation's musical present and shaping its future; in addition to being touted by many critics as a model for French opera composers, he frequently served as a focal point for aesthetic debates. More than either of the other composers this book examines, Gluck's sudden revival and sustained popularity illustrated the Operatic Museum's potential to French audiences and critics, providing a concrete rather than hypothetical example of how works from France's past could connect with audiences and artistic trends of the present.

The reasons for the resurgence of Gluck's music were both manifold and complex, and every critic and composer had different reasons for supporting (or decrying) the composer. These positions often drew upon Gluck's earlier nineteenth-century reception, and so I begin this chapter with an overview of the composer's historical position. We can then turn to the Gluck revival that steadily gained momentum after the 1870s, focusing on two main sources of interest in his music: the Pelletan Edition of his “French” operas and the frequent performance of his music in Parisian concert series.