Adolphe Charles Adam Biography

Biography & Music of Adolphe Charles Adam

1. Adolphe Charles Adam
Biography
Overture to the “Giralda” Opera

2. Adolphe Charles Adam (1803-1856)
French composer and music critic. A prolific composer of operas, ballets
vaudeville and incidental music.
His works include 40 operas and 14 ballets. He is best known today for
his ballets Giselle (1844) and Le corsaire (1856, his last work), his
operas Le postillon de Lonjumeau (1836) and Si j'étais roi (1852, often
regarded as his finest work) and his Christmas carol "Minuit, chrétiens!"
("O Holy Night") (1847).
Adam was also a noted teacher. Léo Delibes was among his pupils.
Adam's music is characterized by a Gallic charm, whether filtered
through the wistful lyricism of Giselle or the worldly wit of Le Postillon de
Lonjumeau, in which he satirized the world of opera.
He had no great desire to produce innovative, deeply felt, or especially
sophisticated works and focused his energies on giving his audiences
the tuneful, graceful music and vivid theatrical entertainment that they
wanted.

3. Biography
Adolphe Adam was born in Paris to Louis Adam (1758-1848), who was
also a composer, as well a professor at the Paris Conservatoire. His
mother was the daughter of a physician.
As a child, Adolphe Adam preferred to improvise music on his own
rather than study music seriously. He entered the Paris Conservatoire
in 1821, where he studied organ and harmonium under the celebrated
opera composer François-Adrien Boïeldieu.
By age 20, he was writing songs for Paris vaudeville houses and
playing in the orchestra at the Gymnasie Dramatique, where he later
became chorus master. Like many other French composers, he made a
living largely by playing the organ.
In 1825, he helped Boïeldieu prepare parts for his opera La dame
blanche and made a piano reduction of the score. With what he earned
from this project, Adam travelled to Belgium, Holland, Germany and
Switzerland. In Geneva, he met librettist and dramatist Eugene Scribe,
someone he would collaborate with on his operas for the next 30 years.

4. By 1830, he had completed twenty-eight works for the theatre.
In these early years of his career, Adam earned a living as an organist.
He was also involved in theatre, first as an unpaid triangle player at the
Gymnase Dramatique, and later as timpanist and chorus master. At the
same time, he was actively composing music for vaudeville houses.
GROWING REPUTATION
Adam rapidly solidified his reputation as a composer in the early 1830s.
His first dramatic composition, the one-act operetta, Pierre et Catherine,
was performed at the Opera-Comique in 1829, and ran for more than 80
performances.
This was followed by his first music for ballet, La chatte blanche, for the
Theatre des Nouveautes (1830).
Through his brother-in-law, Francois Laporte, who was then musical
director at Covent Garden, a couple of Adam's works were staged in
London in 1832, “His first campaign” and “The Eolian Harp”. This led to
him writing more music for the ballet, Faust (1833) for the King's Theatre
in London.

5. Departing from the comique-opera style he had been using in his
earlier works, he wrote Le chalet (1834) considered to be the first
true French operetta with its light, frivolous style influenced by
vaudeville music.
A couple of years later, he would seal his reputation with the comic
opera Le postillion de Lonjumeau (1836).
He continued composing music for ballet with his first work for the
Paris Opera in 1836 - the ballet La fille du Danube for Filippo
Taglioni, a well-known dancer and choreographer.
A few years later, he was invited to St. Petersburg to write another
new ballet L'ecumeur des mers (1840) for Taglioni and his ballerina
daughter Marie.
He was next invited by Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia to write a
work for the Berlin theatre, resulting in Les Hamadryades (1840),
also for Taglioni.
La Poupeé de Nuremberg

6. GISELLE
The peak of his success in writing for ballet came with in 1841 with
“Giselle ou Les Willis” which premiered at the Paris Opera on June 28,
1841. This was followed by another successful ballet in 1842 with La jolie
fille de Gand.
FINANCIAL PROBLEMS
Many of Adam's opera productions were staged at the Opera-Comique,
where he enjoyed a good relationship with director Francois-Louis
Crosnier. However, when Andre-Alexandre Basset became director, the
two men clashed and Basset refused to allow any work by Adam to be
staged by the company.
Because of this, Adam, with Crosnier's support, decided to establish a
new opera house for young composers, taking out a huge loan to do so.
The Opera-National opened in 1847. Unfortunately, the political turmoil of
1848 led to the closure of the theatre, leaving Adam mired in debt.

7. After the failure of his theatre, Adam had to turn to music criticism for
a while in order to earn a living. In 1849, he was appointed professor
of composition at the Conservatoire.
Despite all his financial problems, Adam never gave up composing.
After a change of Director at the Opera-Comique, Adam staged one
of his best works, Giralda, there in 1950.
Si j'etais roi, considered by some his finest work, was staged at the
Theatre Lyrique in 1852. His ballet Le Corsaire premiered at the
Paris Opera in January 1856.
And his last work to be staged, Les pantins de Violette, had its
premiere just four days before his death.
Adam died on May 3, 1856 in Paris, and is buried in the Montmartre
Cemetery.

8. The Giselle Ballet
Giselle is the most famous ballet of the
Romantic era, owed its creation to the
French poet and writer Théophile Gautier.
He wrote its plot after a German legend he
had found in a book of the German poet
Heinrich Heine,
Músic: Adolphe Charles Adam
Librettist: Jules Henry Vernoy &
Teóphile Gautier
“Retour de la vendange”

9. Act - I
A small, peaceful village, bathed in sunlight. It is inhabited by
simple, artless people. Giselle, a young peasant girl, is rejoicing in
the sun, the blue sky, the singing of the birds and, most of all, in
the happiness of pure, trusting love which has lit up her life.
She is in love with Albretch and is confident that she is loved.
The gamekeeper, who is in love with Giselle, tries in vain to per-
suade her that Albrecht, her loved one, is not a peasant at all but a
nobleman in disguise and that he is deceiving her.
The gamekeeper manages to steal into the cottage which Albrecht
is renting in the village and here he finds a silver sword with a coat
of arms on it. Now the gamekeeper knows for sure that Albrecht is
concealing his noble origins.

10. A party of distinguished noblemen, attended by a sumptuous
suite, seek rest and refreshment in the village after the hunt.
The peasants give their guests a cordial welcome.
Albrecht is embarrassed by this unexpected meeting: he tries
to hide the fact he knows them for, in their company, is his
betrothed, Bathilde.
Meanwhile the gamekeeper shows everyone Albrecht’s sword
and, unmasking him, tells them of the latter’s deceit.
Giselle is shocked to the core by the perfidy of her loved one.
The pure, crystal-clear world of her faith, hopes and dreams
has been destroyed. She goes mad and dies.

11. Act – II
Night-time. The ghostly forms of the Wilis, died brides, appear
among the graves of the village church yard which is bathed in
moonlight.
“Dressed in bridal gowns and garlands of flowers, the irresistibly
beautiful Wilis danced to the light of the moon.” (Heinrich Heine).
And as they felt the time given them for dancing was running out
and that they had again to return to their icy graves, their dancing
became more and more impassioned and rapid.

The Wilis catch sight of the gamekeeper who, suffering from
pangs of conscience, has come to visit Giselle’s grave.
“Marche des vignerons”

12. At the command of Myrtha, the unrelenting Queen of the Wilis,
the Wilis encircle the gamekeeper and make him dance until he
drops lifeless, to the ground.
Albrecht too, is unable to forget Giselle. And, at dead of night, he
comes to her grave.
The Wilis immediately encircle the youth. Albrecht is now
threatened by the same horrifying fate as the gamekeeper.
But the shadow of Giselle now appears and her eternal and her
self-sacrificing love protects and saves Albrecht from the anger of
the Wilis.
The ghostly, white forms of the Wilis vanish with the first rays of
the rising sun and Giselle’s ethereal shadow vanishes too, but
Giselle will always be alive in Albrecht’s memory, the ever present
regret for a lost love, a love that is stronger than death.

13. Ballets
La Chatte blanche (1830)
Faust (1833)
La Fille du Danube (1836)
Les Mohicans (1837)
L'Écumeur des mers (1840)
Les Hamadryades (1840)
Giselle ou les Willis (1841)
La jolie Fille de Gand (1842)
Le Diable à quatre (1843)
La Fille de marbre (1845)
Griseldis ou Les Cinq Sens (1848)
Le Filleule des fées (1849)
Orfa (1852)
Le Corsaire (1856)
Main Works of Adolphe Charles Adam
“Cantique de Noël”

14. Óperas
Pierre et Catherine (1829)
Danilowa (1830)
Trois Jours en une heure (1830)
Joséphine ou Le Retour de Wagram (1830)
Le Morceau d'ensemble (1831)
Le Grand Prix ou Le Voyage à frais communs (1831)
Casimir ou Le Premier Tête-à-tête (1831)
His First Campaign (1832)
The Dark Diamond (1832)
Le Proscrit ou Le Tribunal (1833)
Une Bonne Fortune (1834)
Micheline ou L'Heure de l'esprit (1835)
Le Postillon de Lonjumeau (1836)
Le Fidèle Berger (1838)
Le Brasseur de Preston (1838)
Régine ou Les Deux Nuits (1839)
La Reine d'un jour (1839)
La Rose de Péronne (1840)

15. La Main de fer ou Un mariage secret (1841)
Le Roi d'Yvetôt (1842)
Lambert Simnel (1843)
Cagliostro (1844)
Richard en Palestine (1844)
Les Premiers Pas ou Les Deux Génies (1847)
Le Toréador ou L'Accord parfait (1849)
Giralda ou La Nouvelle Psyché (1850)
Le Farfadet (1852)
La Poupée de Nuremberg (1852)
Si J'étais roi (1852)
Le Sourd ou L'Auberge pleine (1853)
Le Bijou perdu (1853)
Le Muletier de Tolède (1854)
À Clichy, épisode de la vie d'un artiste (1854)
Mam'zelle Geneviève (1856)
Falstaff (1856)
Les Pantins de Violette (1856)
Óperas

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