We’re back at Aix-en-Provence for this week’s Sunday Opera (11/3 3:00 p.m.) and Jean-Philippe Rameau’s “Samson” featuring Jarrett Ott in the title role.
The libretto by Voltaire ran afoul with the censors when it was created in the mid-18th century, and Rameau finally gave up on the project, reusing the music in several other works. The production you’ll hear today is the “reconstruction” of the work especially done for the Festival by director Claus Guth and conductor Raphaël Pichon. The original libretto by Voltaire included many innovations for the time including getting rid of the prologue, fewer recitatives, and a dramatic ending instead of the usual divertissement. Another unusual aspect of the opera is that there are no female voices until the third act when Dalila enters the story. This was done supposedly to show the warring side of Samson.
Joining Jarrett Ott in this production are Jacquelyn Stucker as Dalila, Lea Desandre at Timma, Nahuel Di Pierro as Achisch, Laurence Kilsby as Elon, and Julie Roset as The Angel. Raphael Pichon conducts.
Stay tuned after the opera for a little more music of Rameau, two short orchestral pieces from “Les Indes Galantes,” and then we’ll close the afternoon with a wonderfully atmospheric performance of Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 in C minor featuring the Hamburg Philharmonic conducted by Simone Young in the original 1878 version deemed “unplayable” by several conductors of the day.
