A prolific author of compositions for opera and ballet, he is famous for the ballets Giselle (1844) and Le Corsaire (1856), the operas Le postillon de Lonjumeau (1836) and Les Toréadors (also known as Le toréador ou L'accord parfait (1849), as well as the Christmas song Minuit chrétiens (1847).
Adolphe-Charles Adam was the son of Johann Ludwig, a piano professor at the Paris Conservatory. His parents did not initially destine him to study music. Still, he was sent very young to a pension in Belleville to begin his literary studies. For several years he attended the "Napoleon" high school. During this period, he secretly attended, against his father's will, to his composer friend Ferdinand Hérold, learning the basics of music.
Little fond of studying, he made little progress and did not go beyond the fourth grade. Even the teacher complained about him. Behind his insistent and repeated requests, his father finally agreed to withdraw him from boarding school and grant him a music teacher, as long as composition remained for him only a hobby and not a profession.
A musician by instinct, it seemed easier to guess the mechanism of art than to learn it; on the other hand, little supervised in his studio, he enjoyed great freedom.
After a few years, he found himself able to play the piano quite well and improvise easily on the organs of several churches in Paris, without having done much to achieve this result and being able to read a single lesson of solfeggio.
He had received some harmony lessons from Jacques Widerkehr and, shortly after (1817), entered the Conservatory, where he did not lose his bad habits. Still, finally, thanks to the organization of the school, he lost his indolence.
After following a course in harmony under Antonín Reicha, he began to write arias, duets, and whole scenes, not very remarkable from the point of view of the correctness of the style, but in which there were easy melodies. François-Adrien Boieldieu, who had the opportunity to see these essays, thought he saw the seed of talent in them. He took Adam with him in his composition course, and from this moment, the interest in the studio awakened in the young musician. A singular analogy of spirit and passion for art manifested between the teacher and the disciple, subject to the difference in talent. Both were melodists, and both manifested an inclination toward expressing the sung word and stage intelligence as their dominant quality.
Decorated with the cross of the Legion of Honor, an amiable and witty man, Adam had made many friends that he too knew how to keep when he started his career as a newspaper critic. He also obtained in 1844 the possibility of succeeding Berton at the head of the music section. Still, alongside these acknowledgments, several issues aimed at throwing sadness in his soul.
He did not hide from himself that the successes obtained in the theater were ephemeral because they were based on practical experience rather than inspired. He lacked the distinction and quality of ideas, and he felt that despite having composed fifty-three works and several other compositions, this was not enough for his glory.
This burden may have contributed to hasten his death, which occurred suddenly at the age of 52, with no hint of suffering. That day he had witnessed a singer's debut at the opera, and at ten, he retired to his house. The following day a body was found in his bed.
Giselle is a romantic ballet in two acts from 1841, a fundamental cornerstone of the repertoire of world dance; it summarizes in itself all the stylistic, technical, and expressive elements of classical-romantic ballet.
Giselle was born from the idea of the writer Théophile Gautier and was then set to music in a short time, as soon as the libretto was finished, by Adolphe-Charles Adam, a famous composer of music for opera and ballet. The choreography was entrusted to Jean Coralli; the prima ballerina's steps were taken care of by Jules Perrot.
The ballet consists of two acts: the first concerns the story of Giselle, which culminates in her death; the second act instead concerns the legend of the Villi and Giselle's love for Albrecht, which culminates in the desire to save his life, even if he was the leading cause of her death.
The importance attributed to this classical ballet is mainly due to its musical originality. The ballets performed before Giselle have hardly any made-to-measure elements: many are orchestrated with pieces similar to others or borrowed. The music of this ballet, on the other hand, respects the intention and creativity of the choreographer and author and shows minimal direct similarity with the music of the time. The only short passages not written by Adam are eight bars from a song by Löise Puget and three bars from Carl Maria von Weber's Euryanthe. Giselle is also the first ballet in which the author introduces the leitmotiv specifically as a narrative element.
The ballet has seven main themes: four belong to the people: the reapers, the hunters, the Villi, and Hilarion. Three are less specific: the theme of dance and two leitmotifs of love.
