[3/24/2012] Preview: How we get to Samson's heroic first utterance (The opening scene of Saint-Saëns' "Samson et Dalila," part 2 -- continued)

Richard Decker as Samson in the opening scene of the opera at the Royal Stockholm Opera in 2008, in a controversial production that I gather presented the events of the opera as part of the Israel-Palestine conflict

AS I MENTIONED IN PART 1, WE'RE NOT EVEN GOING
TO ADVANCE AS FAR IN PART 2 AS WE DID BACK THEN

In Part 1, after hearing Samson's "Arrêtez, ô mes frères" outburst, we skipped to his second peroration, "L'as-tu donc oublié" ("Have you forgotten him"), for the sake of hearing a great French tenor, Georges Thill, utter this utterance, because even though Thill was far from a full-fledged dramatic tenor, he sang so manfully and in such gorgeous French that he was able to give us an idea of just how integral the language of the text of Samson, by Ferdinand Lemaire, is from a dramatic standpoint.

In Part 2, in fact, we're not going to get any farther than Samson's "Arrêtez, ô mes frères" outburst. Our goal now is just to get us up to that heroic first utterance, which means we'll be overlapping a little with the excerpt we just heard before the click-through. For reference, that excerpt, which began with the choral accusation "Dieu! As-tu rompu cette sainte alliance?" ("God! Have you broken that holy alliance"), comes at 8:32 in the Barenboim-conducted clip, 8:49 in the Davis-conducted one. At the risk of belaboring the obvious, with this "Have you broken that holy alliance?," the Hebrews are giving a more forceful thrust to the open-fifth motif they sang earlier on "Que sa douleur désarme ton courroux" ("Let our sorrow disarm your wrath!"), at 4:35 in the Barenboim ciip, 4:48 in the Davis.

Again for reference, last week we listened as far as 5:45 in the Davis-Philips recording (which would be about 5:28 in the Barenboim) -- i.e., through the chorus's "Let our sorrow disarm your wrath!" and the following plaintive orchestral figure. So there's important "new" choral material here, and again I think Davis's Munich choristers do this almost as well as any chorus I've heard. It's again that odd situation whereby the music, despite its quintessential Frenchness, especially with regard to the use of language, may actually be more accessible to non-French performers, notably German ones. (We're going to hear portions of another German performance on Sunday.) I think the Barenboim-DG performance captures at least some of the drama of this music, and it's interesting to hear the characteristically French vibrato of the Orchestre de Paris wind players in the orchestral introduction.

I would just note that Davis does maybe less well at capturing the drama built into the fugue that breaks out with the Hebrews' "We have seen our cities overturned." Yes indeed, a fugue can be dramatic, as we'll hear when we return to the great Prêtre/EMI recording on Sunday -- when (I'm a bit nervous to have to report) we're going to be breaking this opening scene down even more, in preparation for Part 3.


Samson et Dalila: Act I: Orchestral introduction; Chorus of Hebrews, "Dieu! Dieu d'Israël!" ("God! God of Israel!") up to Samson's vocal entrance

CHORUS OF HEBREWS [behind the curtain]: God!
God of Israel! Hear the prayer
of your children, imploring you on our knees;
take pity on your people and our misery!
[BARENBOIM 4:35, DAVIS 4:48]
Let our sorrow disarm your wrath!
[BARENBOIM 5:30, DAVIS 5:47]
HEBREW WOMEN [half the sopranos and altos]:
One day you turned your face away from us,
and from that day your people were defeated!

The curtain rises. [BARENBOIM 6:19, DAVIS 6:32]

A public square in the city of Gaza, in Palestine. At left, the portico of the temple of Dagon. At curtain rise, a crowd of Hebrews, men and women, has gathered on the square in an attitude of sorrow and prayer. SAMSON is among them. It is night.
[BARENBOIM 6:32, DAVIS 6:45]
THE HEBREWS: What! Do you wish that forever
the peoples that have known you be erased?
But vainly do I implore you every day;
deaf to my voice, he doesn't answer!
And yet from evening till dawn
I implore here the help of his arm!
[BARENBOIM 7:11, DAVIS 7:29]
[Basses, then tenors, then altos, then sopranos]
We have seen our cities overturned,
and the Gentiles profaning your altar;
and under their yoke our dispersed tribes
have lost everything, even unto the name of Israel!
Are you then no longer that God of deliverance
who extracted our tribes from Egypt?
[BARENBOIM 8:32, DAVIS 8:49]
God!
Have you broken that holy alliance,
divine promises received by our forefathers?

Orchestre de Paris Chorus, Orchestre de Paris, Daniel Barenboim, cond. DG, recorded 1978

Bavarian Radio Chorus and Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis, cond. Philips, recorded February 1989


IN TOMORROW'S SUNDAY CLASSICS POST

As I think I've already made clear, we're going to be going back over this scene somewhat more carefully, to prepare us for the dramatic entrance (and its sequel) that we'll hear in Part 3.


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