Samson and Delilah

• Saint-Saëns began composing his opera Samson et Dalila in 1867 and returned to it several times before completing it in 1877.¹
• Saint-Saëns originally conceived Samson et Dalila as an oratorio, after the models of Handel and Mendelssohn, but his librettist convinced him to make it into an opera instead.²
• The opera took a long time to finish because critics and audiences alike reacted badly at first to the idea of an opera on a biblical subject, discouraging the composer. It was felt that showing a biblical story on the operatic stage would be irreverent.

“A young relative of mine had married a charming young man who wrote verse on the side. I realized that he was gifted and had in facts real talent. I asked him to work with me on an oratorio on a biblical subject. ‘An oratorio!’, he said, ‘no, let’s make it an opera!’, and he began to dig through the Bible while I outlined the plan of the work, even sketching scenes, and leaving him only the versification to do. For some reason I began the music with Act 2, and I played it at home to a select audience who could make nothing of it at all.”

Saint-Saëns on the genesis and early reception of Samson et Delila³

• The opera premiered in Weimar in 1877, in a production organized by Franz Liszt. The opera wasn’t produced in Paris until 1892, but it has enjoyed enduring success since.
• Saint-Saëns dedicated Samson et Delila to the French mezzo soprano and composer Pauline Viardot.⁴
• The famous “Bacchanale” occurs in Act III, preceding Samson’s destruction of the Philistine temple. The percussive intensity of the piece “evokes the barbarism of the Philistines.”⁵

1. Daniel M. Fallon, Sabina Teller Ratner, and James Harding, “Saint-Saëns, (Charles) Camille,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed April 4, 2024, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000024335.
2. Hugh Macdonald, “Samson et Dalila,” Grove Music Online (2002), accessed April 4, 2024. https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-5000904621.
3. Quoted in Ibid.
4. Daniel M. Fallon, Sabina Teller Ratner, and James Harding, “Saint-Saëns, (Charles) Camille,” Grove Music Online.
5. Hugh Macdonald, “Samson et Dalila,” Grove Music Online.