Samson (opera)
1734 opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Samson is an opera by the French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau with a libretto by Voltaire. The work was never staged due to censorship, although Voltaire later printed his text. Rameau intended the opera on the theme of Samson and Delilah as the successor to his debut Hippolyte et Aricie, which premiered in October 1733. Like Hippolyte, Samson was a tragédie en musique in five acts and a prologue. Voltaire had become a great admirer of Rameau's music after seeing Hippolyte and suggested a collaboration with the composer in November 1733. The opera was complete by late summer 1734 and went into rehearsal. However, a work on a religious subject with a libretto by such a notorious critic of the Church was bound to run into controversy and Samson was banned. An attempt to revive the project in a new version in 1736 also failed. The score is lost, although Rameau recycled some of the music from Samson in his later operas. A portion of the opera was performed in Paris in 1791, when the remains of Voltaire were brought to the Panthéon in a huge procession during the early French Revolution. A portion performed went: "People, wake up, break your irons / Rise again to your former greatness / Liberty calls on you / You who were born for it."[1]