Conductor Raphaël Pichon brings a lost Rameau opera back to life

The maestro at the head of the Pygmalion Ensemble, a specialist in baroque music and admirer of Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764), was invited by the festival to work with the director Claus Guth.

“I wanted to bring back to life an extraordinary missed event in the history of music.“, says conductor Raphaël Pichon who presents Thursday July 4, 2024 Samsona censored and lost opera that he “reorganized” for the Aix-en-Provence Lyric Art Festival.

World creation, this Samson 2024 may “have something to tell us about ourselves today“, he believes. He touches “to the question of the expression of faith, of fanaticism, of political destiny, of the ambivalence of human nature“.

It should be noted that this lyrical tragedy in five acts and a prologue, composed in 1733 on a libretto by Voltaire, was censored the following year.This opera will not see the light of day because it is accused of impiety, of compromising with biblical truth.“, explains the maestro. Despite a second attempt, the opera was banned, the score lost and the libretto as Voltaire wrote it also disappeared.

However, adds the conductor who relied on the correspondence between Voltaire and Rameau, the latter “would have reused a large part of the score of Samson in the operas he would write after” : The gallant Indies, The Feasts of Hebe And Castor and Pollux. For him it began “a treasure hunt” : it was necessary “try to have some intuitions about the great scenes which could be taken from this or that opera” posterior to Samson and in which Rameau would have disseminated his music.

For his part, Claus Guth is developing a scenario, “a skeleton of a booklet“. “Scattered pieces“are collected… And everything gives”birth of a first score“. “This is not a reconstruction“, warns Raphaël Pichon who believes that he has rather “reorganized” of the “great music” And “brought back to life“to this project, keeping its spirit. For this”extraordinary adventure“, he was keen to ensure that the work was reinvented”don’t smell the seam” artificial.

French-Italian mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre plays the role of Timna, with whom Samson falls in love.A role that was completely invented” she says. For everyone on set, “it was necessary to feed“our character in doing”call to our creativity“.

To do this, Raphaël Pichon and Claus Guth were also able to rely on indications given by Voltaire, slipped into the anthology of his works at the end of his life. The pamphleteer mentions a Samson Who “gives the names of characters, a vocabulary and a little idea of ​​his dramaturgical choices“.

Until July 18, the public will be able to see a work “compact“(2h20, much less than the 3h30, average duration of operas of the time),”nervous“, without lieto fine (happy ending in vogue in 18th century operas), says the maestro.Very electric“also, with the addition of electronic music and with”the choir as a central character“. American baritone Jarrett Ott plays Samson, American soprano Jacquelyn Stucker plays Dalila and actress Andréa Ferréol represents Samson’s mother, in text, a sort of common thread throughout the work.