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French composer Adolphe Adam
was born in Paris on July 24, 1803
and died there on May 3, 1856. He
was the son of a musician who did
his best to dissuade him from
following the same career; but he
was eventually allowed to enroll at
the Paris Conservatoire, where he
studied under Boieldieu. After
helping Boieldieu to orchestrate the
overture to his opera La Dame
Blanche in 1825, he came to
the notice of the Opera-Comique
and had his first one-act opera
Pierre et Catherine produced
there in 1829. His brother-in-law,
Francois Laporte, was musical
director at Covent Garden and
through him a couple of Adam's
works were staged there in 1832. Up
to then he had written in the
conventional opera-comique style,
but in La Chalet (1834) he
wrote what is considered to be the
first true French operetta, light and
frivolous with music nearer to the
popular vaudeville idiom. The opera
which established his reputation and
has been most frequently performed
is Le Postillon de
Longjumeau (1836): the aria
"Mes amis, ecoutez l'histoire" has
remained a tenor
favorite.
In 1844 he was elected a Member of
the Institut, in 1849 professor of
composition at the Conservatoire.
He died suddenly seven years
later.
His reputation during his lifetime
was not limited to his own country.
He wrote ballets for London, Berlin
and St. Petersburg, which capitals he
also visited personally. The ballets
which brought him some of his
greatest successes were Faust
; La Fille du Danube;
La Jolie Fille de Gand, and
especially
Giselle .
Adam attempted four kinds of
dramatic composition: (1) grand
opera, in which he utterly failed; (2)
ballet, in which he produced some
charming melodies; (3) comic
opera, the one and only real domain
of his talent; (4) incidental music for
nearly thirty plays, which is
ephemeral. He also wrote church
music, pianoforte pieces and
songs.
Richard en Palestine is
considered his most successful grand
opera; Giselle, his most
successful ballet; and Le Postillon
de Longjumeau, his most
successful comic
opera.
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