Played by THE BRITISH NATIONAL OPERA
COMPANY
Conducted by EUGENE GOOSSENS , Senr.
Relayed from the Prince of Wales Theatre,
Birmingham
THIS favourite Opera of Saint-Saens was broadcast to all the B.B.C. listeners last November, and is no doubt too fresh in their memories to need more than a brief reminder of the way in which the Old Testament story is set forth in it. It is interesting, in view of its worldwide popularity, to recall that it was refused by the authorities of the Paris Opera, and produced by Liszt, who spent so much of his enthusiasm on other people's behalf, at Weimar. Not till some years after that (1877) did the Paris Theatres welcome Saint-Saens as a composer for the stage, but though a whole series of operas followed one another from his industrious pen, none has ever achieved anything like the worldwide fame of this.
There is a short Prelude before the curtain rises, and. we hear the Israelites bemoaning their oppression. The first scene is a square in Gaza in front of the temple of Dagon, with Samson and the Israelites at prayer. The scene includes the conflict with Abimelech and the Philistine soldiery and Samson's slaying of the oppressor. The Hebrews rejoice and there follows a dance of Philistine maidens, among them, Delilah. In spite of the warnings of an aged Hebrew, Samson falls completely under her spell.
The second act tells of her overcoming of Samson, learning his secret, and robbing him at once of his hair and his wondtrful strength. A great storm is vividly set forth in the music.
. The third act has two sienes, the first in Samson's prison, with a chorus of the other Hebrew captives, and the second, Samson's overthrowing of the Temple on the heads of the Philistines.