Si j'étais Roi

Adolphe Adam is remembered mainly for his ballet, Giselle. However, in his 32-year career as composer, he focused on the operatic stage, for which he completed 70 works before his death in 1856. Si j'etais Roi (If I were king), an opera comique from 1852, is among his most successful works, and its overture still holds a place on the fringes of the orchestral repertoire. The plot follows the fate of a young 16th-century Goan fisherman who becomes king for a day and eventually overcomes the apparently insurmountable obstacles to the hand as well as the heart of a beautiful princess whose life he saved.