by Camille Saint-Saëns (libretto by Ferdinand Lemaire)
seen by live streaming from The Metropolitan Opera New York on 20 October 2018
Mark Elder conducts Darko Tresnjak's new production of Samson et Dalila with Roberto Alagna as Samson, Elīna Garanča as Dalila, and Laurent Naouri as the High Priest of Dagon.
The climax of Samson's story, from the book of Judges in the Old Testament, is his seduction by Dalila, who extracts from him the secret of his physical strength (his uncut hair), thus enabling the Philistines to overpower him. Then, blinded and in chains, he is nonetheless able to recover his strength through praying to God (and through the Philitines having neglected to keep his head shaved), and he destroys the temple of Dagon when the Philistines taunt him there.
The three acts of the opera show Samson's initial success against the Philistines, then Dalila's seduction, then Samson's final triumph. Most of the circumstantial details of the Biblical story are omitted in favour of a scene in which the oppressed Hebrews lament their subjugation and are then taunted by a Philistine leader who eventuallyattacks Samson and is killed by him. The High Priest of Dagon then curses the Hebrews, and Dalila and her attendant priestesses emerge from the temple. Samson is transfixed by Dalila, who suggests that they meet in private.
Though the High Priest offers a bribe to Dalila to entrap Samson and learn the secret of his strength, she contemptuously dismisses the idea, claiming that her own desire for revenge is sufficient motivation. This is an interesting development, since the story in Judges mentions the bribe but not her own private feelings. Obviously Dalila can be presented as ruthlessly vengeful, but in this production Elīna Garanča chose to portray her more ambivalently. This is hardly surprising, since Dalila's famous aria is seductive and sensuous, and almost impossible to sing without sincerity. However, even momentary tenderness cannot overcome steely resolve, and once the secret is out, the haircut and catastrophe immediately follow. (As this was my first exposure to the opera I was very surprised to discover that Samson's final weakening and the shearing of his hair both took place off stage.) In the opera, prayer by Samson is sufficient for him to regain his strength - in effect he offers his own life in exchange for relief for the Hebrews; the significance of his hair regrowing is not really susceptible to operatic staging.
The three acts of the opera show Samson's initial success against the Philistines, then Dalila's seduction, then Samson's final triumph. Most of the circumstantial details of the Biblical story are omitted in favour of a scene in which the oppressed Hebrews lament their subjugation and are then taunted by a Philistine leader who eventuallyattacks Samson and is killed by him. The High Priest of Dagon then curses the Hebrews, and Dalila and her attendant priestesses emerge from the temple. Samson is transfixed by Dalila, who suggests that they meet in private.
Though the High Priest offers a bribe to Dalila to entrap Samson and learn the secret of his strength, she contemptuously dismisses the idea, claiming that her own desire for revenge is sufficient motivation. This is an interesting development, since the story in Judges mentions the bribe but not her own private feelings. Obviously Dalila can be presented as ruthlessly vengeful, but in this production Elīna Garanča chose to portray her more ambivalently. This is hardly surprising, since Dalila's famous aria is seductive and sensuous, and almost impossible to sing without sincerity. However, even momentary tenderness cannot overcome steely resolve, and once the secret is out, the haircut and catastrophe immediately follow. (As this was my first exposure to the opera I was very surprised to discover that Samson's final weakening and the shearing of his hair both took place off stage.) In the opera, prayer by Samson is sufficient for him to regain his strength - in effect he offers his own life in exchange for relief for the Hebrews; the significance of his hair regrowing is not really susceptible to operatic staging.
The setting is impressionistic, with latticework screens in geometric patterns which cannot be authentically 'Philistine', while the costumes were gorgeously archaic for Dalila and the High Priest and various temple attendants, except for the dancers who were skimpily clad. All this emphasised the contrast between Hebrews in downtrodden homespun and Philistines in gaudy splendour, and of course enhanced Dalila's seductive charms. But the core of the opera is the great confrontation in Act 2, in which Roberto Alagna and Elīna Garanča were extremely well matched, he torn between confused notions of loyalty to his God and people and the prospect of reviving his love for Dalila (there seems to have been a past), and she playing him with consummate ease, but half coming to realise that in betraying him she is also betraying a part of herself.
The third act contains the so-called 'Bacchanale', a wild dance before the image of Dagon. It is of course an anachronistic name, since it derives from the Greek god Bacchus, but it is gorgeously decadent both musically and (in this production) choreographically. Hard to know how to top it with the destruction of a temple on stage (particularly once one has seen the backstage work in creating the sets!) but the solution adopted here, a dazzling white light spilling from the massive idol, made an effective end to a torrid scene.
All in all, a visually exciting production in which the three main soloists shone - a suitably villainous High Priest, a fatally flawed hero, and a stunningly dangerous woman whose triumph, it was subtly suggested, may have been personally hollow.
The third act contains the so-called 'Bacchanale', a wild dance before the image of Dagon. It is of course an anachronistic name, since it derives from the Greek god Bacchus, but it is gorgeously decadent both musically and (in this production) choreographically. Hard to know how to top it with the destruction of a temple on stage (particularly once one has seen the backstage work in creating the sets!) but the solution adopted here, a dazzling white light spilling from the massive idol, made an effective end to a torrid scene.
All in all, a visually exciting production in which the three main soloists shone - a suitably villainous High Priest, a fatally flawed hero, and a stunningly dangerous woman whose triumph, it was subtly suggested, may have been personally hollow.
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