Adolphe Adam

Berlioz praised the music of Adam’s teacher, Boieldieu, for its pleasing Parisian elegance. The judgment could just as easily apply to his pupil, who cut his compositional teeth writing vaudeville songs and honed his theatrical instincts in the pit band of the Gymnasie Dramatique. Born in Paris in 1803, Adam wanted to write music that was easy to understand and amusing. With the latter in mind, he composed some 36 opéras-comiques including his 1834 hit, Le Chalet, which notched up more than 1,000 performances across the ensuing four decades. His work was full of sparkling wit and gracefulness, and required plenty of vocal agility—one aria in Le Postillon de Lonjumeau (1836) sends the tenor soaring up to a stratospheric top D. Today, he’s perhaps best remembered for “Cantique de Noël” (1847, “O Holy Night” to English-speaking audiences), and the ballets Giselle (1841) and Le Corsaire (1856).