O Holy Night
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Adolphe Charles Adam was an accomplished composer for opera, theatre, and ballet, and a teacher at the Paris Conservatoire. At the age of 27, in 1830, he had completed nearly 30 theatre productions. "Cantique de Noël," translated to English as "O Holy Night" is one of his most famous works, done in collaboration with Adam's friend Cappeau de Roquemaure, who supplied the lyrics to Adam's melody. Strangely enough, the song was originally frowned upon by the 19th-century church authorities. One French bishop even denounced it as "unfit for church services because of its lack of musical taste and total absence of the spirit of religion." Fortunately, people didn't take this criticism to heart, and this carol went on to become a beloved Christmas classic. The English words to the carol were written by John Sullivan Dwight in 1855.
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