Opera on 3

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Music: Classical: Opera

Programme presenting rare and fascinating operatic performances

Programme presenting rare and fascinating performances and vividly communicating the immediacy of the live experience

Opera on 3: Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila

Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila

BBC Radio 3 - Opera on 3, Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila

Antonio Pappano conducts tenor SeokJong Baek and mezzo Elīna Garanča in the title roles. 

Antonio Pappano conducts Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila, with SeokJong Baek and Elīna Garanča in the title roles, as faith, love, deceit and vengeance collide Old Testament-style.

Baritone-turned-tenor SeokJong Baek and superstar mezzo Elīna Garanča take the title roles in Richard Jones's new production of Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila, the Old Testament story where faith and love collide with deceit and vengeance. 

After years of oppression under the yoke of the heathen Philistines, the Israelites have almost lost faith in God and seem paralysed in disillusioned, fatalistic despair. Samson, whose strength of faith is mirrored by his physical power, rouses his people to revolt against their oppressors. Bent on revenge for her people, Philistine Dalila seduces Samson and persuades him to reveal the secret of his strength, precipitating the Bible's most famous haircut. Now, unable to fend off the Philistines, Samson is humiliated, tortured and blinded. But his faith never deserts him and in one last superhuman feat Samson pulls down the temple in the midst of the Philistines' idolatrous orgy.

Famous for Dalila's erotically charged seduction aria 'Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix' and the orgiastic bacchanal, the opera is also full of dark and dramatic choruses whose model Saint-Saëns took from Bach and Handel.   

Recorded earlier this month and introduced by Georgia Mann in conversation with Sarah Hibberd and including contributions from cast and conductor.

Acts 1 & 2

8.10 pm
Interval

8.30 pm
Act 3

Samson.....SeokJong Baek (tenor)
Dalila.....Elīna Garanča (mezzo-soprano)
High Priest.....Lukasz Golinski (baritone)
First Philistine.....Alan Pingarrón (tenor)
Second Philistine.....Chuma Sijeqa (bass)
Messenger.....Thando Mjandana (tenor)
Abimélech.....Blaise Malaba (bass) 
Samson's Rabbi.....Goderdzi Janelidze (bass)

Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Antonio Pappano (conductor)

Read the full synopsis on the Royal Opera House website: https://bit.ly/39NiRMz

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