Why was the French version of Orfeo successful in Paris?

The French version of Orfeo ed Euridice achieved tremendous success in Paris in 1774 because it aligned with the serious operatic traditions cultivated by French composers, which Christoph Willibald Gluck sought to synthesize with his own reformist ideals.12

By reconstituting his earlier Italian work into a French libretto, Gluck made the opera more "stately" and "Rameau-like," appealing to the tastes of Parisian audiences. This version benefited from the principles of his operatic reform, which prioritized "simplicity, truth and naturalness" over the ornamental excesses of traditional Italian opera seria. Furthermore, the French version featured a more marked declamatory style, intense orchestral color, and a greater emphasis on dramatic and psychological flexibility, which resonated with the Enlightenment ideals prevalent in the French capital at the time.12