Adolphe Adam

Adolphe Charles Adam was born 24 July 1803, son of a well-known composer and pianist who didn't want him in music. He defied his father and became a prolific theatre composer, creating the ballet Giselle in 1841, the opera Le postillon de Lonjumeau in 1836, and in 1847 the Christmas carol "Minuit, chrétiens!" — known in English as "O Holy Night". His operas and ballets earned him a good living until 1848, when a disastrous bid to open a new Paris opera house in competition with the Opéra and Opéra-Comique wiped him out. He recovered by turning to journalism and teaching, eventually appointed p…