Saint-Saëns’s opera tells a version of the familiar biblical story about the Israelite warrior succumbing to the charms of the Philistine woman who betrays him to her religious leaders. Imaginatively designed by Francis O’Connor, Patrick Mason’s production sets the story in France during the second world war, when the Vichy government assisted the Nazis in the rounding-up of French Jews to be transported east and murdered in the camps.
This might seem an extreme transposition, but in the original text by librettist Ferdinand Lemaire that was set by Saint-Saëns, the High Priest of Dagon clearly expresses his desire to wipe out the Israelites. In this new interpretation, Dalila is a 1940s film star whose latest movie, Bacchanale, which co-opts the opera’s famous ballet sequence for its score, displays a flaming Star of David on its poster. (We watch the reactions of the sophisticated audience at its premiere, rather than seeing the film itself.)
Though fussy in places, Mason’s staging is thought-provoking and theatrically alive. There is a spectacular coup de theatre at the end, when Samson, a suicide bomber, brings down the Philistine temple, destroying himself and all inside it.
Musically, there are worthwhile performances from Nicholas Folwell as the vicious Abimélech and Michel de Souza as the genocidal high priest. Christophoros Stamboglis has the voice and presence for the Old Hebrew, but needs to attend more closely to his intonation. Sara Fulgoni seizes the possibilities of the wily Dalila – one of opera’s great seductresses – but it is Carl Tanner’s thrillingly sung Samson that provides the evening’s highlight performance. Gianluca Marciano conducts the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in a compelling realisation of the score.
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In rep until 17 July. Box office: 01962 737 373.
