(c) Opéra Comique Samson: Opéra Comique
Paris, Opéra Comique — Salle Favart
About the Event
The total show presents today's audiences with the tragedy dreamt by Voltaire, featuring a single strong plot and striking music. Samson, known for his godlike strength and passion for Dalila, was also a savior and a judge with divine birth announced by an angel. Despite his hopeless self‐control, blindness, and failures in love, he was marked by fate as a hero.
Voltaire's ambition was to offer Rameau a philosophical opera libretto based on Samson from the Book of Judges. However, royal censors rejected the idea of Sacred History being portrayed on secular stages. Rameau abandoned the project and reused the score in his later works.
Inspired by the 1734 project, Claus Guth and Raphaël Pichon adopted a broader frame of reference for the opera creation based on Samson's life. The clever scenario is accompanied by a music montage intended to remain faithful to the original material. The show, created on 4th July 2024 at the Festival d’Aix‐En‐Provence, is a collaboration between Claus Guth and Raphaël Pichon, with a libretto by Voltaire that was previously censored.
Cast / Production
Musical direction, Raphaël Pichon • Stage direction, Claus Guth • With Jarrett Ott, Ana Maria Labin, Julie Roset, Laurence Kilsby, Camille Chopin, a child from la Maîtrise Populaire of the Opéra‐Comique • Choir and Orchestra, Pygmalion
Address
Opéra Comique, 1 Place Boieldieu, Paris, France — Google Maps
