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Camille Saint-Saëns, Samson and Delilah

I: "Dieu! Dieu d'Israël!" (Hebrew chorus)

I: "Un jour, de nous tu détourneras la face" (Hebrew chorus)

I: "Arrêtez, ô mes Frères!" (Samson, Hebrew chorus)

I: "L'as-tu donc oublié?" (Samson, Hebrew chorus)

I: "Qui donc élève ici la voix?" (Abimélech)

I: "C'est toi que sa bouche invective..." (Samson, Abimélech, Hebrew Chorus)

I: "Que vois-je? Abimélech!" (Le Grand-Prêtre, 1st and 2nd Philistines)

I: "Seigneur! La troupe furieuse" (Un messager philistin, 1st and 2nd Philistines, le Grand-Prêtre)

I: "Hymne de joie, Hymne de délivrance" (Hebrew chorus, Un vieillard hébreu)

I: "Voici le printemps nous portant des fleurs" (Hebrew Chorus)

I: "Je viens célébrer la victoire" (Dalila, Samson, Un vieillard hébreu)

I : Danse des prêtresses de Dragon

I: "Printemps qui commence" (Dalila, Un vieillard hébreu)

Prelude Act II

II: "Samson, recherchant ma présence" (Dalila)

II: "J'ai gravi la montagne" (Le Grand-Prêtre, Dalila)

II: "Qu'importe à Dalila ton or" (Dalila, Le Grand-Prêtre)

II: "Qu'importe à Dalila ton or" (Dalila, Le Grand-Prêtre)

II: "Samson, me disais-tu, dans ces lieux" (Le Grand-Prêtre, Dalila)

II: "En ces lieux, malgré moi" (Samson, Dalila)

II: "Qu'importe à mon cœur désolé" (Dalila, Samson)

II: "Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix" (Dalila, Samson)

II: "Mais!... Non! Que dis-je?" (Dalila, Samson)

III: "Vois ma misère, hélas! vois ma détresse!" (Dalila, Hebrew chorus)

III: "L'aube qui blanchit déjà les coteaux" (Philistines)

III: Bacchanale

III: "Salut! Salut au juge d'Israël" (Le Grand-Prêtre, Samson, Philistines)

III: "Laisse-moi prendre ta main" (Dalila, Philistines)

III: "Allons, Samson, divertis-nous" (Le Grand-Prêtre, Samson, Philistines)

III: "Viens, Dalila, rendre grâce à nos dieux" (Le Grand-Prêtre, Dalila, Philistines)

III: "Guidez ses pas vers le milieu du temple" (Le Grand-Prêtre, Samson, Dalila, Philistines)

Saint-Saëns's Samson and Delilah

Omri Nitzan, Amir Nizar Zuabi (stage directors), Tomáš Netopil (conductor) – With Torsten Kerl (Samson) Marianna Tarasova (Dalila) – Opéra de Flandre

Opera
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Cast

Omri Nitzan — Stage director

Amir Nizar Zuabi — Stage director

Symphonic orchestra of Flanders Opera

Choir of Flanders Opera

Tomáš Netopil

Torsten Kerl — Samson

Program notes

Staged by the Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp in 2009, Saint-Saëns's Samson and Delilah—a story of doomed love set against the backdrop of cultural conflict between Hebrews and Philistines—is relocated to the contemporary Middle East. Directors Omri Nitzan and Amir Nizar Zuabi explore the tensions between different nations and religions, and the complex oppressor-oppressed relationship. "We tried to move away from the quasi-biblical interpretation,” say Nitzan and Zuabi, “and to place the story in today's world to explain its political aspects better.... Acts of terror by a state will lead to acts of terror against a state, which in turn will lead to more terror by the state and this completes the vicious circle."

Backed by the Symphony Orchestra and Choir of Vlaamse Opera under the baton of Czech conductor Tomáš Netopil, young German tenor Torsten Kerl plays the Samson to Russian mezzo-soprano Marianna Tarasova’s Delilah. The music’s kaleidoscopic colours are evoked with sensitivity and lyricism by the orchestra and singers, unfolding the dramatic story in all its tragic beauty.

Samson and Delilah was originally intended to be an oratorio, but as his ideas developed, Saint-Saëns was persuaded to turn it into an opera. In 1877, Franz Liszt arranged for its world premiere in Weimar, Germany. In 1892 it made its way to the Paris Opera, where it was played more than five hundred times over the next thirty years.

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