The opera, like the biblical tale, takes place in the city of Gaza, a capital of ancient Philistia, and in the Valley of Sorek, in the foothill country toward Jerusalem. The time is around 1150 BC.
Anita Rachvelishvili as Dalila Photo: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera Season
SAINT-SAËNS: Samson et Dalila
Cast:
Anita Rachvelishvili (Dalila), Gregory Kunde (Samson), Laurent Naouri (High Priest), Tomasz Konieczny (Abimélech), Günther Groissböck (The Old Hebrew), Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orchestra conducted by Mark Elder
The source of this popular opera is a single chapter in the biblical Book of Judges, and the brevity of the tale did nothing to prevent it from becoming one of the world’s great stories of love (or at least passion)—as well as the archetypal depiction of a man betrayed by an immoral woman.
Anita Rachvelishvili as Dalila Photo: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera
Saint-Saëns’s opera, along with other artistic renderings across multiple genres, has had an important role in the popularisation of this tale.
Despite tepid success early on, Samson et Dalila eventually conquered the operatic world and has proven itself a magnificent evening of theatre.
Tomasz Konieczny as Abimélech Photo: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera
The score of this opera teems over with colour and dramatic aptitude and is a worthy compendium of Saint-Saëns’s diversified genius.
Portions of the opera, including Dalila’s seduction aria “Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix” and the extraordinary ballet sequence in the final scene—the Bacchanale—are known well beyond the opera house.
A scene from the Bacchanale in Act III Photo: Ken Howard/MetropolitanOpera
Throughout the work, the score brilliantly animates all the powerful and diverse colors in the iconic story, from the lurid to the exotic, the crass, the sensual, and even the sublimely spiritual.
