Adolphe Charles Adam was a French composer, teacher and music critic. A prolific composer for the theatre, he is best known today for his ballets Giselle (1841) and Le corsaire (1856), his operas Le postillon de Lonjumeau (1836) and Si j'étais roi (1852) and his Christmas carol "Minuit, chrétiens!".
Adam in 1840
Adam's father, Louis, 1834
Adam's professor of composition, Adrien Boieldieu
Le Mal du pays, Adam's first opera, 1827
Giselle, originally titled Giselle, ou les Wilis, is a romantic ballet in two acts with music by Adolphe Adam. Considered a masterwork in the classical ballet performance canon, it was first performed by the Ballet du Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique at the Salle Le Peletier in Paris on 28 June 1841, with Italian ballerina Carlotta Grisi as Giselle. It was an unqualified triumph. It became hugely popular and was staged at once across Europe, Russia, and the United States.
Carlotta Grisi in the first act of Giselle (1842)
Anna Pavlova as Giselle (before 1931)
Vaslav Nijinsky as Albrecht, 1910
The Ballet of the Nuns in the Salle Le Peletier, 1831