RARE VINTAGE 2 LP SET CLASSICAL BALLET MUSICAL HERITAGE SOCIETY STEREO MHS 824750F SLEEVE IS IN VERY GOOD CONDITION - LPs ARE IN EXCELLENT CONDITION Written By ADOLPHE ADAM Best known today for his ballet Giselle and for the Christmas carol Cantique de Noël, Adolphe Adam, born in 1803, was a prolific composer of ballets, vaudeville, incidental music, and comic opera, and one of the most popular of his day. His father was a pianist and teacher, but was firmly set against the idea of his son following in his footsteps. Adam was determined, however, and studied and composed secretly under the tutelage of his older friend Ferdinand Hérold, a popular composer of the day. When Adam was 17, his father relented, and he was permitted to study at the Paris Conservatoire — but only after he promised that he would learn music only as an amusement, not as a career. He came to the notice of Boieldieu, who became his mentor and encouraged him to write for the theater. His first opera, Le mal du pays, was premiered at the Gymnase-Dramatique (where he played in the orchestra), and was followed in 1829 by Pierre et Cathérine, at the Opéra-Comique. Paired with Auber's La fiancée, it was a great success. In 1830, Adam left Paris for London, escaping political turmoil; in England, he wrote mostly ballet music. (His brother-in-law was the manager of the King's Theater.) Though he returned to France in 1832, his work remained popular across the Channel, and he premiered his Faust in London in 1833. The comic opera Le Chalet, in 1834, was the greatest success of his career: popular in France throughout the nineteenth century, it was later forgotten. Le Postillon de Lonjumeau (1836) and Giselle (1841) were also successful, but his attempt at grand opera, Richard en Palestine (1844), was given only polite attention. By 1847, Adam was wealthy and influential enough to open his own opera house, the Opéra-National. However, during the political turmoil of 1848 ("the year of revolutions"), he had to close down — only four months after its opening, losing not only his own investments but the capital he had borrowed. While greatly burdened by these debts, he was still popular enough that his old royalties and new compositions, including Le Toréador (1849) and Si j'étais roi (1852) enabled him to pay the debt off steadily while he supported himself with musical journalism. In 1849, Adam also became a composition professor at the Conservatoire, and by 1852, his debts were paid off. He died in 1856. Adam's music is characterized by a Gallic charm, whether filtered through the wistful lyricism of Giselle or the worldly wit of Le Postillon de Lonjumeau (in which he satirized the world of opera). Often accused of superficiality, he admittedly had no great desire to produce innovative, deeply felt, or especially sophisticated works, and focused his energies on giving his audiences the tuneful, graceful music and vivid theatrical entertainment that they wanted. "GISELLE" (THE COMPLETE BALLET) The ballet Giselle, although generally identified with the name of composer Adolphe Adam, was the creation of French poet and novelist Théophile Gautier (1811-1870). Gautier was inspired by a poem in Heinrich Heine's book De l'allemagne that recounted an Eastern European legend of the Wili (or "wally"), the soul of an unmarried girl who has died before her wedding day and who dances in the forest for all eternity and drags unfortunate men to their doom. Gautier immediately envisaged the work as a ballet but had no experience in plotting one. For this he turned to dramatist Vernay de Saint-Georges, who worked out a proper scenario from Gautier's ideas. Rather than presenting the work cold to the director of the Paris Opéra, Gautier showed it first to Jules Perrot, then mentor to a ballerina, Carlotta Grisi, who had made her Paris Opéra debut just weeks before. Grisi liked the scenario, and both she and Perrot lobbied successfully to have it produced, but on the condition that it be ready by June 1841 — in less than a month. Fortunately, Perrot had already contacted composer Adolphe Adam, known for his ability to cook up a quick score in a short time. Adam had begun work on April 11, before the ballet was approved. The work was finished on June 8, 1841, a mere 20 days before the production was launched. Giselle was more than a mere success; it is credited with "inventing" Romantic ballet as we know it. Its tragic theme of the heroine doomed to dance forever was re-created subtly in countless ballets afterward. The very stage costumes of the Wilis — tutus and tights — marked the introduction of standard ballet apparel. Adam's music is serious in nature and not frivolous; even played uncut with all the repeats intact, Giselle is anything but monotonous. The first act sparkles with charm and grace, and is packed with strong, memorable melodies. The second act, with its more sober dramatic content, is often brooding and mysterious, yet still maintaining the rhythmic lilt of the first. It is Adam's finest theatrical creation outside of his opera Le Postillon de Lonjumeau. Grisi gave performances of Giselle at the Opéra for years afterward, and the ballet was staged in Paris as late as 1868. By then Perrot had moved to St. Petersburg and was choreographer for the Imperial Ballet Theater. He made Giselle a staple of the Russian company, and after Perrot's retirement Marius Petipa retooled the choreography, creating the basis for the standard Giselle that is seen today. The most celebrated Giselle given under Petipa's direction was his last revival of the work in 1903, featuring the dynamic and now-legendary ballerina Anna Pavlova. Some additions to the score are considered standard. Léon Minkus may have added the waltz variation that replaces Adam's original in the first act, and no one knows how another waltz variation of the first act's love music wound up added to the second act. However, these changes are strictly observed in present-day performances. performed by Bolshoi Theater Orchestra The Bolshoi Theater Orchestra has a long and distinguished history dating back to its origins in 1776 as an ensemble of 13 musicians who accompanied singers in the first permanent theatrical troupe in Moscow. The orchestra has taken part in the premieres of numerous ballets and operas that would later form the Russian canon, including those of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich. The Bolshoi Theater Orchestra is now made up of some 200 players, most of whom trained at the Bolshoi Musical Academy. In addition to regular work in Moscow, the orchestra has performed in Japan, England, the United States, and Europe. The first-desk players of each section of the orchestra perform in the chamber group Ensemble of the Soloists of the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra. Conducted By Algis Zuraitis
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