Adolphe Charles Adam |

Adolphe Charles Adam

The author of the world-famous ballet “Giselle” A. Adam was one of the most famous and beloved composers of France in the first half of the 46th century. His operas and ballets enjoyed great success with the public, Adana’s fame even during his lifetime crossed the borders of France. His legacy is enormous: over 18 operas, XNUMX ballets (among which are The Maiden of the Danube, Corsair, Faust). His music is distinguished by the elegance of the melody, the plasticity of the pattern, and the subtlety of the instrumentation. Adan was born into the family of a pianist, professor at the Paris Conservatory L. Adan. The father’s fame was quite large, among his students were F. Kalkbrenner and F. Herold. In his younger years, Adan showed no interest in music and prepared for a career as a scientist. Nevertheless, he received his musical education at the Paris Conservatory. A meeting with the composer F. Boildieu, one of the leading French composers of that time, had a strong influence on the development of his composing abilities. He immediately noticed a melodic gift in Adana and took him to his class.

The successes of the young composer were so significant that in 1825 he received the Rome Prize. Adana and Boildieu had deep creative contacts. According to the sketches of his teacher, Adam wrote the overture to Boildieu’s most famous and popular opera, The White Lady. In turn, Boildieu guessed in Adana a vocation for theatrical music and advised him to first turn to the genre of comic opera. The first comic opera Adana was written in 1829 based 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 from Longjumeau (1836), The King from Yveto (1842), Cagliostro (1844). The composer wrote a lot and quickly. “Almost all critics accuse me of writing too fast,” wrote Adan, “I wrote The Cabin in fifteen days, Giselle in three weeks, and If I Were a King in two months.” However, the greatest success and the longest life fell to the share of his ballet Giselle (libre. T. Gauthier and G. Corali), which served as the beginning of the so-called. French romantic ballet. The names of the wonderful ballerinas Ch. Grisi and M. Taglioni, who created the poetic and tender image of Giselle, are associated with the Adana ballet. The name Adana was well known in Russia. Back in 1839, he came to St. Petersburg, accompanying his student, the famous singer Sheri-Kuro, on a tour. In St. Petersburg, a passion for ballet reigned. Taglioni performed on stage. The composer witnessed the success of a dancer in the main part of his ballet The Maiden of the Danube. The opera house made an ambivalent impression on Adana. He noted the shortcomings of the opera troupe and spoke flatteringly about the ballet: “… Here everyone absorbs dancing. And besides, since foreign singers almost never come to St. Petersburg, local artists are deprived of acquaintance with good examples. The success of the singer I accompany was therefore enormous … “

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 repertoires of many musical theaters to this day.

For a number of years the composer did not start composing music. After falling out with the director of the Opera Comique, Adan decided to open his own theatrical venture called the National Theatre. It lasted only a year, and the ruined composer was forced, in order to improve his financial situation, to turn to composition again. In the same years (1847-48), his numerous feuilletons and articles appeared in print, and from 1848 he became a professor at the Paris Conservatory.

Among the works of this period are a number of operas that amaze with a variety of plots: Toreador (1849), Giralda (1850), The Nuremberg Doll (based on the short story by T. A. Hoffmann The Sandman – 1852), Be I King “(1852),” Falstaff “(according to W. Shakespeare – 1856). In 1856, one of his most popular ballets, Le Corsaire, was staged.

The Russian public had the opportunity to get acquainted with the literary talent of the composer on the pages of the Theatrical and Musical Bulletin, which in 1859 published fragments from the composer’s memoirs on its pages. The music of Adan is one of the brightest pages of the musical culture of the XNUMXth century. It is no coincidence that C. Saint-Saens wrote: “Where are the wonderful days of Giselle and Corsair ?! These were exemplary ballets. Their traditions need to be revived. For God’s sake, if possible, give us the beautiful ballets of yesteryear.”

L. Kozhevnikova