_Semiramide_ had recommended its composer to the favor of Maria Theresa, his star was in the ascendant. In September, 1754, his comic opera _Le Chinese_, with its tragic-comic ballet, _L’Orfano della China_, performed at the countryseat of the Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen in the presence of the emperor and court, gave such pleasure that its author was definitely attached to the court opera at a salary of two thousand ducats a year. His wealthy marriage and his increasing reputation, instead of tempting him to indulge in luxurious ease, spurred him to increased exertions. He added to the sum total of his knowledge by studies of every kind--literary, poetic, and linguistic--and his home became a meeting place for the _beaux esprits_ of art and science. He wrote several more operas to librettos by Metastasio, witnessed the triumph of two of them in Rome, after which he was able to return to Vienna, a _cavaliere dello sperone d’oro_ (knight of the golden spur), this distinction having been conferred upon him by the Pope. Henceforth he called himself _Chevalier_ or _Ritter_ (not _von_) Gluck. V For the sake of continuity we are obliged at this point to resume the thread of our remarks concerning the _opera buffa_ of Pergolesi. In 1752, about the time of Gluck’s official engagement at the Vienna opera, an Italian troupe of ‘buffonists’ introduced in Paris _La serva padrona_ and _Il maestro in musica_ (Pergolesi’s only other comic opera). Their success was sensational, and, having come at a psychological moment, far-reaching in results, for it gave the impulse to a new school, popular to this day--that of the French _opéra comique_, at first called _opera bouffon_.