 The premiere sparked a huge controversy, almost a war, such as had not been seen in the city since the Querelle des Bouffons.Gluck's opponents brought the leading Italian composer, Niccolò Piccinni, to Paris to demonstrate the superiority of Neapolitan opera and the "whole town" engaged in an argument between "Gluckists" and "Piccinnists".On 2 August 1774, the French version of "Orfeo ed Euridice" was performed, with the title role transposed from the castrato to the haute-contre, according to the French preference for high tenor voices which had ruled since the days of Lully.