Where does Samson get his strength from? His hair, of course: those gorgeous locks that are warming the tenor SeokJong Baek’s back as he makes a mightily impressive Royal Opera stage debut. Delilah’s realisation that a few chops of the scissors will render him puny and the Philistines triumphant is a pivotal moment of the Old Testament story, but in Saint-Saëns’s opera this revelation happens offstage, unsung.
Samson et Dalila has endured thanks to its glorious music rather than to any particular dramaturgical nous on the part of its creators – the fact that Saint-Saëns intended to write a concert oratorio on the subject, not a staged opera, is telling. So maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise that, despite the Royal Opera throwing its considerable weight behind this new production, it doesn’t strike a corresponding number of dramatic sparks.
