L'Ile de Merlin ou Le Monde renversé (Merlins Insel oder Die verkehrte Welt)

The fact that “opéra comique”, rooted in the folk art of the French vaudeville, was brought to its high point by Gluck, a German composer working in Italian, clearly demonstrates the close relationships and interconnections made in European musical life in the mid-18th century. With “L’Île de Merlin ou Le monde renversé”, Gluck created an enchanting buffo work which draws its charm not only from its colourful music with appealing details of instrumentation and characterisation but also from the juxtaposition of real, mythological, and fairy-tale figures as well as from the critical social undertones in the libretto. The new edition is based on the Gluck Complete Edition, Series IV, volume 1, edited by Günter Haußwald.