Adolphe Charles Adam

Overture La Poupée de Nuremberg

Adolphe Adam always saw the bright side of life. He earned his living as a music critic and a composer, though he himself considered composing as mere pastime. He is still famous because of his ballet music and he was said to find his inspiration while' looking attentively at the young female dancers' legs'. His comic opera 'La Poupée de Nuremberg' was most successful in Paris in the fifties and sixties of the nineteenth century. It was performed almost a hundred times between 1852 (the year of the creation) and 1870, which was a unique phenomenon. Berlioz described the opera and its overture as a 'real festival of waltzes, gallop, and medleys ...worthy of the Nuremberg Fair!' The splendid overture is a highlight of the French opera and a real asset for any orchestra.