Adolphe Charles Adam

O Helga natt

O Holy Night is a very well-known Christmas carol. The origin of the carol is French beginning with the words: 'Minuit! Chrétiens, c'est l'heure solennelle'. It is about the birth of Jesus and was written in 1843 by a wine merchant and poet by the name of Placide Cappeau (1808-77). He turned to the composer Adolphe Adam (1803-56) and asked him to write a suitable melody. The result was brilliant and the carol was premiered in Cappeau's home town Roquemaure in 1847 by the opera singer Emily Laurey. Based on Cappeau's French text, the English version was written in 1855 by an American Unitarian (Calvinist) minister by the name of John Sullivan Dwight (1813-93).

Adolphe Adam was the son of the pianist and composer Louis Adam (1758-1848), who did not want his son to follow in his foot-steps as a musician. However, Adolphe wanted otherwise, and already at the age of 17 he was accepted to study at the music conservatoire in Paris. He was a student under François Adrien Boïeldieu and composed several comical operas that became successful. After the July-revolution 1830 Adam moved to London. He worked for a couple of years before returning to Paris, where he founded a new opera house in 1847, the Théâtre national. After the revolution in 1848 it had to close and Adam was ruined, why he had to go back to composing. In 1856 he concluded the ballet Le Corsaire, which together with the ballet Giselle are his most performed works today.