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Thread: Adolphe Charles Adam, Composer

  1. #1
    deathbecomezher Guest

    Adolphe Charles Adam, Composer

    Birth: Jul. 24, 1803Death: May 3, 1856

    Composer. His most characteristic music is notable for its frivolous charm and melodic grace. Adam's one-act comedy "Le chalet" (1834) is considered the first real French operetta. Today he is best known for the ballet "Giselle" (1841), a staple of dance troupes around the world, and the Christmas carol "O Holy Night" ("Cantique de Noel", 1847). Adolphe Charles Adam was born in Paris, the son of an Alsatian pianist who tried to dissuade him from a musical career. He was an admittedly poor student at the Paris Conservatory, and after failing to win the Prix de Rome he worked as an organist and vaudeville songwriter. Adam's networking skills gained him professional access to some of the finest theatres in Europe and his light opera "Le Postillon de Longjumeau" was a smash at the Paris Opera-Comique in 1836. He was elected to the Academie des Beaux-Arts in 1844. Following a feud with the director of the Opera-Comique, Adam founded the rival Opera-National with the goal of producing his own works; the Revolution of 1848 shut down the venue after four months, driving him into bankruptcy. To pay off his debts he wrote music criticism, joined the Conservatory as professor of composition in 1849, and continued to compose at an even more prolific rate.
    He had just regained financial solvency when he died of a heart attack at 52.
    Apart from religious and occasional pieces Adam wrote exclusively for the theatre, some 53 operas, 13 ballets, and incidental music for over 30 plays, most of which has fallen into oblivion. Having never quite shaken off his vaudeville background, he relied too heavily on his gift for facile melody and often resorted to extra-musical novelty to attract the public. (For the 1856 ballet "Le Corsaire" he had a genuine captured pirate ship hauled onto the stage. The Parisians loved it). Adam was also notorious for his decades-long unfriendly rivalry with composer and critic Hector Berlioz, who frequently savaged him in his reviews; Adam returned the favor by hindering Berlioz's prospects at the Paris Opera and in other official circles. Ironically, perhaps, when Adam died Berlioz took his place as a member of the Academy. He was nevertheless important in helping to introduce a popular, unpretentious spirit into French theatre music, influencing Offenbach and other creators of operetta.

  2. #2
    erin Guest
    Oh\ Holy Night is my alltime fav Christmas song. It's so beautiful.

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