Ranieri de' Calzabigi (1714-1795) was an Italian poet and librettist, most famous for his collaboration with the composer Christoph Willibald Gluck on his "reform" operas. Born in Livorno, Calzabigi spent the 1750s in Paris, where he became a close friend of Casanova. Here he explored his interest in opera, producing an edition of the works of Metastasio, the most famous librettist of opera seria. However, Calzabigi was also impressed by French tragédie en musique, and eager to reform Italian opera by making it simpler and more dramatically effective. In 1761 he settled in Vienna where he met likeminded reformers: Gluck; Count Giacomo Durazzo, the theatre director; Gasparo Angiolini, the choreographer; Giovanni Maria Quaglio, the set designer; and the castrato Gaetano Guadagni. Together they worked on Gluck's groundbreaking Orfeo ed Euridice in 1762. Calzabigi then wrote the libretto for Alceste, which further abandoned the practices of opera seria in favour of "noble simplicity". In the preface to this work, to which Gluck put his signature, Calzabigi set out his manifesto for reforming opera. A third collaboration, Paride ed Elena, followed in 1770. Calzabigi also contributed to the scenario of Gluck's reformist ballet, Don Juan, in 1764. In 1775 he was banished from the Viennese court as the result of a scandal and took up residence in Pisa, where he continued his literary activities until his death. Libretto can also refer to a sub-notebook PC manufactured by Toshiba. ... Gluck, detail of a portrait by Joseph Duplessis, dated 1775 (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) Christoph Willibald (von) Gluck (July 2, 1714 – November 15, 1787) was a German composer. ... Livorno, sometimes in English Leghorn, (population 170,000) is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. ... -1... Giacomo Casanova (April 5, 1725 - June 4, 1798). ... Pietro Trapassi (January 13, 1698 - April 12, 1782), Italian poet, is better known by his pseudonym of Metastasio. ... Opera seria is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and serious style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1720s to ca 1770. ... The French lyric tragedy (French : tragédie lyrique or tragédie en musique) is a specific French form of opera introduced by Jean-Baptiste Lully and used by his followers until the second half of the eighteenth century. ... 1761 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Inhabitants according to official census figures: 1800 to 2005 Vienna in 1858 Vienna (German: Wien ) is the capital of Austria, and also one of the nine States of Austria. ... Count Giacomo Durazzo (1717-1794) was an Italian diplomat and man of the theatre. ... A castrato is a male soprano, mezzo-soprano, or alto voice produced either by castration of the singer before puberty or who, because of an endocrinological condition, never reaches sexual maturity. ... Guadagni. ... Orfeo ed Euridice is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck. ... 1762 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Alceste is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck. ... Opera seria is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and serious style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1720s to ca 1770. ... Paride ed Elena (Paris and Helen) is an opera by Gluck, the third of his Italian reformist works, following Orfeo ed Euridice and Alceste. ... 1770 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Act 4 of Swan Lake: choreography by Petipa and Nureyev, music by Tchaikovsky. ... 1764 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... 1775 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Pisa is a city in Tuscany, central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the Arno River on the Tyrrhenian Sea. ...