Frédéric Adam (4 January 1904 – 7 September 1984) was a French conductor, composer and administrator.Pitt C. Frédéric Adam. In: ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera''. Macmillan, London and New York, 1997.

Career

Born in

Hinsbourg Hinsbourg (; ) is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. Geography Hinsbourg is positioned in the north of Alsace, some thirty kilometres (eighteen miles) through twisting mostly wooded roads to the north of ...

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

, Adam studied in

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

and Paris. He became a

répétiteur A (from the French verb meaning 'to repeat, to go over, to learn, to rehearse') is an accompanist, tutor or coach of ballet dancers or opera singers. A feminine form, , also appears but is comparatively rare. Opera In opera, a is the person ...

at the opera house in Strasbourg in 1933, remaining there until his retirement in 1972, including periods as co-director from 1955 to 1960 and director from 1960 to 1972. Adam mounted the first productions in France of several notable operas including: ''

Wozzeck ''Wozzeck'' () is the first opera by the Austrian composer Alban Berg. It was composed between 1914 and 1922 and first performed in 1925. The opera is based on the drama ''Woyzeck'', which the German playwright Georg Büchner left incomplete at h ...

'' (1959), ''

Il prigioniero ''Il prigioniero'' (''The Prisoner'') is an opera (originally a radio opera) in a prologue and one act, with music and libretto by Luigi Dallapiccola. The opera was first broadcast by the Italian radio station RAI on 1 December 1949. The work is ba ...

'' (1961), ''

A Midsummer Night's Dream ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a comedy written by William Shakespeare 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict amon ...

'' and ''

Die Frau ohne Schatten ' (''The Woman without a Shadow''), Op. 65, is an opera in three acts by Richard Strauss with a libretto by his long-time collaborator, the poet Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It was written between 1911 and either 1915 or 1917. When it premiered at the ...

'' (1965). His compositions include ballets, symphonies and two operas, ''Judith'' (1948, Strasbourg) and ''Le Voyage vers l'étoile'' (1954, Strasbourg). He died in Illkirch-Graffenstaden.

References

1904 births 1984 deaths 20th-century French conductors (music) 20th-century French composers 20th-century French male musicians French male conductors (music) French male composers Music directors (opera) Musicians from Bas-Rhin {{opera-bio-stub