Adolphe Charles Adam (24 July 1803 3 May 1856) was a French composer and music critic. A prolific composer of operas and ballets, he is best known today for his ballets Giselle (1844) and Le Corsaire (1856, his last work), his operas Le postillon de Lonjumeau (1836), Le torador (1849) and Si j'tais roi (1852, often regarded as his finest work), and his Christmas carol Minuit, chrtiens! (O Holy Night) (1847). Adam was also a noted teacher. Lo Delibes was among his pupils. "O Holy Night" ("Cantique de Noël") is a well-known Christmas carol composed by Adolphe Adam in 1847 to the French poem "Minuit, chrétiens" (Midnight, Christians) by Placide Cappeau (1808–1877), a wine merchant and poet, who had been asked by a parish priest to write a Christmas poem.[1] Unitarian minister John Sullivan Dwight,[2] editor of Dwight's Journal of Music, created a singing edition based on Cappeau's French text in 1855. In both the French original and in the two familiar English versions of the carol, the text reflects on the birth of Jesus and of mankind's redemption.Adolphe Charles Adam (24 July 1803 3 May 1856) was a French composer and music critic. A.