  We start with a short exposition of developments in physics and mathematics
that preceded, formed the basis for, or accompanied, the birth of deformation
quantization in the seventies. We indicate how the latter is at least a viable
alternative, autonomous and conceptually more satisfactory, to conventional
quantum mechanics and mention related questions, including covariance and star
representations of Lie groups. We sketch Fedosov's geometric presentation,
based on ideas coming from index theorems, which provided a beautiful frame for
developing existence and classification of star-products on symplectic
manifolds. We present Kontsevich's formality, a major metamorphosis of
deformation quantization, which implies existence and classification of
star-products on general Poisson manifolds and has numerous ramifications. Its
alternate proof using operads gave a new metamorphosis which in particular
showed that the proper context is that of deformations of algebras over
operads, while still another is provided by the extension from differential to
algebraic geometry. In this panorama some important aspects are highlighted by
a more detailed account.
