author
Adolphe Adam
1803–1856
Best known for the ballet Giselle and the carol later known in English as O Holy Night, this French Romantic composer wrote with a gift for melody and the stage. His music helped shape 19th-century ballet and opéra comique, and it still turns up regularly in theaters and concert halls.
2 Audiobooks
Derniers souvenirs d'un musicien
by Adolphe Adam
About the author
Born in Paris in 1803, Adolphe Adam grew up in a musical family; his father, Louis Adam, was a pianist and teacher at the Paris Conservatoire. Although he first studied at the Conservatoire with some reluctance, he went on to build a busy career in the theater and became known as a remarkably prolific composer.
Adam wrote operas, ballets, songs, and other stage works, but he is remembered above all for Giselle (1841), one of the great classics of Romantic ballet. Other well-known works include the opera Le postillon de Lonjumeau, Le corsaire, and the French Christmas song Minuit, chrétiens, which later became famous in English as O Holy Night.
Alongside composing, he also worked as a teacher and music critic. He died in Paris in 1856, but his music has had a long afterlife, especially wherever ballet lovers gather: Giselle remains the clearest window into his graceful, theatrical style.