Samson et Dalila (Samson and Delilah) is an opera in three acts by Camille Saint-Saëns, first performed in Weimar on 2 December 1877. It adapts the biblical story from the Book of Judges: the Hebrew hero Samson, endowed with superhuman strength, is seduced by the Philistine Delilah, who draws from him the secret of his power and delivers him to his enemies. Its most famous number is Dalila's aria "Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix", known in English as "Softly awakes my heart".
Act I. In Gaza, the Hebrews, subject to the Philistines, lament their fate. Samson rekindles their faith and, in the clash that follows, kills Abimelech, satrap of Gaza. The Hebrews rise up. Dalila, a Philistine priestess, comes out of the temple of Dagon with her companions and turns her charms on Samson, with dance and the song "Printemps qui commence". An old Hebrew warns the hero against her, in vain.
Act II. In the valley of Sorek, Dalila plots Samson's downfall with the High Priest of Dagon: she is moved not by love but by hatred and loyalty to her people. When Samson arrives, on a night of storm, Dalila sings "Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix" and demands from him, as proof of love, the secret of his strength. Samson resists and finally yields: his strength lies in his hair. Dalila hands him over to the Philistine soldiers.
Act III. Blinded, shorn and in chains, Samson turns a mill wheel in the prison of Gaza and hears the reproaches of his people. In the temple of Dagon, the Philistines celebrate their victory with a bacchanale and mock the prisoner. Samson asks God to restore his strength one last time and, braced against the temple's columns, brings it down upon his enemies and himself.
Saint-Saëns conceived the work around 1867, at first as an oratorio, on a libretto by Ferdinand Lemaire. The French theatres turned it down: a biblical subject on stage seemed unacceptable at the time. It was Franz Liszt who, from Weimar, supported the composer and secured the opera's premiere at the city's Grand Ducal Theatre, on 2 December 1877, in a German version.
France was slow to come round: the Paris Opera did not present the work until 1892, fifteen years after the premiere. Since then, Samson et Dalila has stood as the only one of the thirteen operas Saint-Saëns composed to hold a permanent place in the international repertoire.
The work owes its fame above all to the role of Dalila, one of the great mezzo-soprano parts. Her three arias draw a complete portrait of the character: the seduction of "Printemps qui commence", the invocation "Amour! viens aider ma faiblesse" and, above all, "Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix", whose enveloping melody is among the best known in French opera.
Saint-Saëns's training as a master of the oratorio can be heard in the great choruses of the Hebrews, almost Handelian in their writing. At the opposite pole, the Bacchanale of the third act, with its sinuous oboe solo and driving rhythm, is a brilliant orchestral showpiece often performed in concert. The finale, with the collapse of the temple, demands a spectacular effort from orchestra and chorus alike.
Samson et Dalila combines the pull of a universal biblical story with vocal writing of the first order. The character of Dalila, whose sincerity remains a riddle that each interpreter solves in her own way, and the contrast between intimacy and vast choral fresco explain why the work still draws audiences more than a century on.
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