If the Italian influence on Gluck’s style has long been the focus of musicologists’ attention, the ten-odd years that the composer spent in Italy have never given rise to an historical study. And yet Gluck’s trips to Italy can be seen within a specific European context, which deserves to be analysed through an archaeological study based on various sources (correspondences, testimonies, newspapers). A comparison with other travel-narratives reveals the exceptional nature Gluck’s stays in Italy, but also their strong element of routine. One can indeed trace a certain evolution between the first stay in the 1730s and 40s, meant as usual as the accomplishment of the musician’s training, and that of 1763, which marked the beginning of Gluck’s emancipation from the Italian model.
