Composer | Adolphe Adam

The French composer and music critic Adolphe Adam was born in Paris in 1803. The son of a composer and music professor at the Paris Conservatoire, he studied organ, although his father discouraged his musical career. In his twenties, Adam wrote songs and played in vaudeville theatre orchestras, composed prolifically for various Paris theatres, and travelled as far as Russia. He supplemented this by playing the organ and arranging for piano the operas of other composers, such as his former teacher Boieldieu.

Of his more than eighty works for the theatre, including fourteen ballets, Adam is best remembered for his ballet Giselle (1841), the opera Le Postillon de Lonjumeau (1836) and the beloved Christmas carol O Holy Night, which is said to have been the first music ever broadcast on the radio.

At the height of his career, Adam fell out with the Director of the Opéra-Comique and opened the Opéra-National (Paris’ fourth opera house) in 1847, appealing to a wide popular audience. After investing all his own money and borrowing heavily to launch the venture, he was ruined when his new theatre had to close during the violent 1848 Revolution. While continuing to compose, to pay off his debts Adam was also obliged to take up music journalism and teach at his alma mater, the Paris Conservatoire, a workload that contributed to his premature death in Paris in 1856 at 52 years old.