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Adolphe Charles Adam
Life Time
24 July 1803 - 3 May 1856
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The author of the world-famous ballet "Giselle" A. Adan was one of the most famous and beloved composers of France in the first half of the XIX century. His operas and ballets were a huge success with the public, the fame of Adana during his lifetime crossed the borders of France. His legacy is huge: more than 46 operas, 18 ballets (among them "The Virgin of the Danube", "Corsair", "Faust"). His music is distinguished by the grace of the melody, the plasticity of the drawing, the subtlety of the
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The author of the world-famous ballet "Giselle" A. Adan was one of the most famous and beloved composers of France in the first half of the XIX century. His operas and ballets were a huge success with the public, the fame of Adana during his lifetime crossed the borders of France. His legacy is huge: more than 46 operas, 18 ballets (among them "The Virgin of the Danube", "Corsair", "Faust"). His music is distinguished by the grace of the melody, the plasticity of the drawing, the subtlety of the instrumentation. Adan was born in the family of a pianist, professor of the Paris Conservatoire L. Adan. The fame of his father was quite large, among his students - F. Kalkbrenner and F. Herold. In his youth, Adan showed no interest in music and was preparing for a career as a scientist. He received a musical education at the Paris Conservatory. A strong influence on the development of his composing abilities had a meeting with the composer F. Boualdier - one of the leading French composers of the time. He immediately noticed a melodic gift in Adana and took it to his class. The success of the young composer was so significant that in 1825 he received the Roman Prize. Adana and Boualdier had deep creative contacts. According to the sketches of his teacher, Adan wrote an overture to the most famous and popular Boualdier opera “The White Lady”. In turn, Boualdier guessed in Adana the vocation to theatrical music and advised him at the beginning to turn to the genre of comic opera. Adana’s first comic opera was written in 1829 on a plot from Russian history, in which Peter I was one of the main characters. The opera was called Peter and Catherine. The operas that appeared in subsequent years gained the greatest fame and popularity: The Cabin (1834), The Postman of Longjumo (1836), The King of Iveto (1842), and Cagliostro (1844). The composer wrote a lot and quickly. “Almost all critics accuse me of writing too quickly,” wrote Adan, “I wrote The Cabin in fifteen days, Giselle in three weeks, and If I were King in two months.” However, the greatest success and longest life fell to his ballet Giselle (library of T. Gauthier and G. Coralie), which served as the beginning of the so-called French romantic ballet. With the ballet of Adana are associated the names of wonderful ballerinas S. Grisi and M. Taglioni, who created a poetic and gentle image of Giselle. The name Adana was well known in Russia. Back in 1839, he came to St. Petersburg, accompanying his student on a tour - the famous singer Sheri-Kuro. There was a fascination with ballet in St. Petersburg. Taglioni was on stage. The composer witnessed the success of the dancer in the main part of his ballet "The Virgin of the Danube". The opera house made a dual impression on Adana. He noted the shortcomings of the opera troupe and spoke flatteringly of the ballet: It's all about dancing. And besides, since foreign singers almost never come to St. Petersburg, local artists are deprived of familiarity with good samples. The success of the singer, which I accompany, was therefore huge. All the latest achievements of French ballet were quickly transferred to the Russian stage. The ballet Giselle was staged in St. Petersburg in 1842, a year after the Paris premiere. It is still included in the repertoire of many musical theaters. For several years, the composer did not begin to compose music. Having quarreled with the director of Opera Comique, Adan decided to open his own theater enterprise called the National Theatre. It lasted only a year, and the ruined composer was forced, in order to improve his financial situation, to return to the composition. During these years (1847-48) his numerous feuilletons and articles appeared in print, and from 1848 he became a professor at the Paris Conservatory. Among the compositions of this period are a number of operas, striking a variety of plots: "The Torador" (1849), "Giralda" (1850), "The Nuremberg Doll" (according to the novella by T. A. Hoffman "The Sandman" - 1852), "Be the King" (1852), "Falstaff" (according to W. Shakespeare - 1856). In 1856 he staged one of his most popular ballets "Corsair". The Russian public had the opportunity to get acquainted with the literary talent of the composer on the pages of the Theatre and Musical Herald, which published fragments from the composer’s memoirs in 1859 on its pages. The music of Adana is one of the bright pages of the musical culture of the XIX century. It is no coincidence that C. Saint-Saëns wrote: “Where are the wonderful days of Giselle and Corsair?” They were exemplary ballets. Their traditions must be revived. For God's sake, if possible, give us the beautiful ballets of old.