The triumph of “Samson” by Jean-Philippe Rameau

It is a crazy and successful bet that the conductor Raphaël Pichon has undertaken with the German director Claus Guth, that of reconstructing an opera censored at its creation in 1733 and never performed since: “Samson”.

To achieve this feat and bring life back to Samsonthe lost opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau, the conductor Raphaël Pichon and the German director Claus Guth had to rummage through the notebooks of Voltaire, author of the lost original libretto, and rely on the Samson of the Bible and scholarly works. The dramaturgy is clear, stripped of the heaviness of the time. Musically, we knew that Jean-Philippe Rameau had used the score, dispersed, in his following works, but it was still necessary to put it in good order and follow his instinct.

“Even if he delivered many masterpieces, immense masterpieces, there is always this little regret: what if Rameau had written a great myth of Orpheus?”

Raphael Pichon, conductor

to franceinfo

“If Rameau had written a great Medea, a key work opposite a great drama, I am sure that this work would travel around the world today.“, assures the conductor Raphaël Pichon.”And so this opportunity of this incredibly universal story of Samson, between shadow and light, between faith and fanaticism, humanism and politics, this first great mass murderer, this first kamikaze in our history, I found a fundamental reason to try this experiment, this laboratory around Samson.” he adds.

On stage, the ruins of a large house, as if we were starting at the end, when Samson, drunk with faith and impossible love, destroys his enemies and dies with them. Echoing this violence, carried by baritone Jarett Ott, the clarity of the choir and the sublime voices of the two female roles, Dalila, Jackelyn Stucker and mezzo-soprano Léa Desandre, as Timna, Samson’s first wife, delighted to enter the tragic repertoire.I got in touch with a part of myself that I didn’t know. In any case, I knew it, my loved ones knew it, but I had never revealed it to the public and I had never dared to really show it and live it fully and feel credible in my roles as a drama queen.“, explains Léa Desandre. “And actually, I love it, because you have no idea how much fun it is for women to end up covered in blood, it’s really very enjoyable, when it happens right on stage.“.

Samson Rameau is at the Aix-en-Provence festival until July 18.