Le postillon de Lonjumeau
Music by Adolphe Adam · libretto by Adolphe de Leuven · premiered 1836
Le postillon de Lonjumeau (The Postillion of Lonjumeau) is an opéra comique in three acts by Adolphe Adam to a French libretto by Adolphe de Leuven and Léon Lévy Brunswick. The opera has become the most successful of Adam's works, and the one by which (apart from his ballet Giselle and his Christmas carol "Cantique de Noël") he is best known outside his native France. The opera is "in the mainstream of French opera comique, jam-packed with Gallic style and charm and musically quite sophisticated, with parody and pastiche lightly touched in".
The well-known tenor Act one aria ('ronde') "Mes amis, écoutez l'histoire" includes the demanding high D, or D5, at the end.
Text from the Wikipedia article "Le postillon de Lonjumeau", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the Composer
Adolphe Charles Adam (French: [adɔlf adɑ̃]; 24 July 1803 – 3 May 1856) was a French composer, teacher and music critic. A prolific composer for the theatre, he is best known today for his ballets Giselle (1841) and Le corsaire (1856), his operas Le postillon de Lonjumeau (1836) and Si j'étais roi (1852) and his Christmas carol "Minuit, chrétiens!" ("Midnight, Christians", 1847, known in English as "O Holy Night"). Adam was the son of a well-known composer and pianist, but his father did not wish him to pursue a musical career. Adam defied his father, and his many operas and ballets earned him a good living until he lost all his money in 1848 in a disastrous bid to open a new opera house in…
Text from the Wikipedia article "Adolphe Adam", licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Other Operas by Adolphe Adam
- Le chalet (1825)
- Le toréador (1849)
- Giralda ou La nouvelle psyché (1850)
- La poupée de Nuremberg (1852)