SAMSON (Rameau) Aix-en-Provence 2024 Raphaël Pichon, Jarrett Ott, Jacquelyn Stucker, Lea Desandre, Nahuel di Pierro

SAMSON by Jean-Philippe Rameau
Théâtre de l’Archevêché, Aix-en-Provence, France
July 12, 2024

CAST

Samson – Jarrett Ott
Dalila – Jacquelyn Stucker
Timna – Lea Desandre*
Achisch – Nahuel di Pierro
Elon – Laurence Kilsby
L’Ange Julie Roset*
Premier juge / Un convive – Antonin Rondepierre
Deuxième convive – René Ramos Premier
La Mère de Samson – Andréa Ferréol
Samson jeune Gabriel Coullaud-Rosseel
Un sans-abri – Pascal Lifschutz
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Conductor: Raphaël Pichon
Orchestra: Pygmalion
Chorus: Pygmalion
Choreographer: Sommer Ulrickson

Stage Director: Claus Guth
Stage Designer: Étienne Pluss
Costume Designer: Ursula Kudrna
Lighting Designer: Bertrand Couderc
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Samson is an opera by the French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau with a libretto by Voltaire. The work was never staged due to censorship, although Voltaire later printed his text. Rameau intended the opera on the theme of Samson and Delilah as the successor to his debut Hippolyte et Aricie, which premiered in October 1733. Like Hippolyte, Samson was a tragédie en musique in five acts and a prologue. Voltaire had become a great admirer of Rameau’s music after seeing Hippolyte and suggested a collaboration with the composer in November 1733. The opera was complete by late summer 1734 and went into rehearsal. However, a work on a religious subject with a libretto by such a notorious critic of the Church was bound to run into controversy and Samson was banned. An attempt to revive the project in a new version in 1736 also failed. The score is lost, although Rameau recycled some of the music from Samson in his later operas.

After the Exodus from Egypt, the Israelites settled in Judea. Because they disobeyed the First Commandment and practiced polytheism, they fell under the yoke of the Philistines. They elected Samson as their king, who was invincible as long as his head was kept unshaven. He called his people to revolt against their oppressors. But love and betrayal thwarted his destiny… A lost work In 1732, Voltaire and Rameau, the most important French composer of his time, teamed up and broke new ground in the genre with the opera Samson. But royal censorship banned their libretto in 1734, and they were forced to abandon their project. The score was lost. Voltaire was able to publish his text in Amsterdam, and Rameau used several musical passages in later works, notably in Les Indes galantes, Castor et Pollux, and Zoroastre. In 2024, director Claus Guth and conductor Raphaël Pichon reconstructed the lost work. Their reinterpretation of the opera, in its world premiere at the Théâtre de l’Archevêché, draws freely on the life of the biblical hero.

La Volupté (Sensual Pleasure) celebrates her long reign over the people of Paris. Hercules and Bacchus admit that love has made them forget about their famous military victories and they offer their obedience to Pleasure. Suddenly, Virtue arrives in a blinding light. She reassures Pleasure that she has not come to banish her but to use her help in persuading mortals to follow the lessons of truth. She says he will now present the audience with a true, not a mythical, Hercules (i.e. Samson) and show how love caused his downfall.

On the banks of the River Adonis, the Israelite captives deplore their fate under Philistine domination. The Philistines plan to force the Israelites to worship their idols. Samson arrives, dressed in a lion skin, and smashes the pagan altars. He urges the defenceless Israelites to put their faith in God who has given him the strength to defeat the Philistines.

In his royal palace the King of the Philistines learns of Samson’s liberation of the captives and the defeat of the Philistine army. Samson enters, carrying a club in one hand and an olive branch in the other. He offers peace if the king will free the Israelites. When the king refuses, Samson proves that God is on his side by making water spontaneously flow from the marble walls of the palace. The king still refuses to submit so God sends fire from heaven which destroys the Philistines’ crops. Finally, the king agrees to free the Israelites and the captives rejoice.

The Philistines, including the king, the high priest and Delilah, pray to their gods Mars and Venus^[36] to save them from Samson. An oracle declares that only the power of love can defeat Samson.

Fresh from his victories, Samson arrives and is lulled to sleep by the murmuring of a stream and the music of the priestesses of Venus, celebrating the festival of Adonis. Delilah begs the goddess to help her seduce Samson. Samson falls for her charms in spite of the warnings of a chorus of Israelites. He reluctantly leaves for battle again, after swearing his love for Delilah.

The High Priest urges Delilah to find out the secret of Samson’s extraordinary strength. Samson enters; he is prepared to make peace with the Philistines in return for Delilah’s hand in marriage. He overcomes his initial reluctance for the wedding to take place in the Temple of Venus. Delilah says she will only marry him if he reveals the source of his strength to her and Samson tells her it lies in his long hair. There is a roll of thunder and the Temple of Venus disappears in darkness; Samson realises he has betrayed God. The Philistines rush in and take him captive, leaving Delilah desperately regretting her betrayal.

Samson is in the Philistine temple, blinded and in chains. He laments his fate with a chorus of captive Israelites, who bring him news that Delilah has killed herself. The king torments Samson further by making him witness the Philistine victory celebrations. Samson calls on God to punish the king’s blasphemy. Samson promises to reveal the Israelites’ secrets so long as the Israelites are removed from the temple. The king agrees and, once the Israelites have left, Samson seizes the columns of the temple and pushes them over, bringing down the whole building on himself and the Philistines.