Adam, Charles Adolphe

Preface

Adam, Charles Adolphe

Si jétais Roi (Overture)

Adolphe Adam followed in his father Louis Adam’s (1758–1848) footsteps when he became a composer. Unlike his father, who was a pianist and teacher at the Paris Conservatory, Adolphe focused upon theatre music and, when he needed supplemental income, music criticism and teaching. Though he staged many works at the Paris Opéra-Comique from 1825 onward, a disagreement in 1844 with the theatre’s director, Alexandre Basset, prevented Adam from having any works performed there for six years. Adam became destitute upon the failure of the Opéra-National, a third opera house in Paris that he opened to rival Basset and that closed as a result of the 1848 revolutionary upheaval. Adam nonetheless made a comeback after 1850 when he premiered two of his most enduring works: Giralda, ou La nouvelle Psyché (libretto by Scribe) and Si j’étais roi (libretto by d’Ennery and Brésil). …

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