This short article from Education Scotland details some of the stylistic changes that occurred in opera during the transition from the Baroque to the Classical era. It highlights the role played by Christoph Willibald Gluck in this transition or reform of opera. Though we don’t have any pieces by Gluck on our playlist, he is significant for the changes he pioneered. As you’ll read in a subsequent article, there were two main genres of opera in the Classical period: opera seria and opera buffa. Gluck’s reforms were applied by many Classical composers to both types of opera.