Adolphe Adam: Giselle Composer

Famous for O Holy Night Song, and Romantic French Opera and Ballet

Nov 9, 2007

Adolphe Adam's brief biography. Pioneer of 19th-century French Romantic ballets and operas, and famous of Christmas song Cantique de Noel.

Adolphe Adam was a French composer of light operas and ballets, with equal success. He was born in Paris on 24th July, 1803, the son of the composer, pianist and teacher Louis Adam. Although not encouraged by his father to become a musician, he decided at an early age that he wished to compose theatre music.

Early Training and Education

Adolphe Adam studied at the Paris Conservatoire studying counterpoint with Reicha and opera composition with Boieldieu, becoming a composition conductor in Paris.

Earlier in 1825, he won second prize in the prestigious Prix de Rome. The following year, he met the famous opera librettist and dramatist Eugène Scribe, who helped him stage his early operas.

Later, he had a successful opera and ballet produced, staged in London and Russia.

Major Works by Adolphe Adam

A prolific composer, Adolphe Adam wrote more than eighty stage works, some of which were especially produced for the opera-comique (comic opera), for example, Le chalet (The Chalet) and Le postillon de Longjumeau (The Coachman of Longjumeau), had considerable and lasting success.

Notable works showing a natural sense of theatre and graceful melody include the well-known classic Romantic ballet Giselle for which he is best remembered, the opera Si J’etais roi (If I were King). He also wrote another ballet Le Corsaire. Most of Adam's most beautiful music is found in Giselle.

Adam also wrote church music and songs, most popular is "Cantique de Noel," popularly known as "O Holy Night." But he found ballet music easier and more rewarding to compose even more than operas.

Adolphe Adam's Legacy

Adolphe Adam became a key figure as a French Romantic composer of operas, his reputation spreading to other parts of Europe. Although his music may have been eclipsed by later composers, his importance in the 19th-century French Romantic opera remains intact. He devoted most of his creative life to the musical stage. Some French composers followed in his footsteps notably Gounod and Massenet. Adam also had great influence on Delibes.

Operas by Adolphe Adam

Ballets by Adolphe Adam

The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, edited by Stanley Sadie, The Macmillan Press Ltd, 1994

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie, 2nd Edition, 1-29 Volumes, 2001

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