Review: SAMSON ET DALILA at Union Avenue Opera

The Union Avenue Opera is now closing its 32nd season with a beautiful production of Samson et Dalila by Camille Saint-Saëns, which premiered in 1877.  Of Saint-Saëns’ twelve operas this is the only one that still lives.

Before each Friday performance at Union Avenue a delightful, insightful pre-show talk is given by Dr. Jeffrey Heyl.  It’s our unfailing custom to attend these sessions.  This time, half-way through the talk, a distant tenor voice wafted in from the dressing rooms on the floor below.  Some musical soul was simply bursting with the urge to sing.  We were soon to meet this singer and watch him play the famous biblical super-hero.

Samson et Dalila is a very challenging opera.  Union Avenue Opera founder and Artistic Director Scott Schoonover  has a gift for presenting such “unproducible” works even in this, the most intimate opera venue in St. Louis.  Two years ago they did Aida, whose production history includes elephants and casts of thousands.  The Union Avenue production was full  of glorious voices, but it was, per force, done “in concert”.  Now the tale of Samson and Delilah ends in the total destruction of the entire temple of Dagon and (per the Bible) the killing of thousands.  How to do this on a small stage in the nave of a church?  Well it requires brilliant gifts in the stage director and designers but it is, amazingly, quite possible. 

Scott Schoonover also has a gift for casting.  Not only are his choices to sing the title roles plucked from the Realm of Ideal Forms, but the entire chorus is peopled with outstanding voices.  Samson et Dalila has many striking opportunities for choral beauty—and this production fulfills them to overflowing.

Set Designer Katherine Stepanik fills the stage with nothing but fabric, gorgeously draped.  It’s mostly gray-white, with great dark swags of burgundy and touches of blue and copper.  Folds of fabric convincingly become the fluting of marble pillars.  The dark swags visually echo the oft-occurring figures with arms raised imploring Jehovah (or Dagon).  Lighting Designer Patrick Huber deftly colors the set to support the mood of the moment—blue, gray-green, rose and violet, or simply mysterious black.  It’s an inspired design, which reduces the libretto’s four different settings to a very acceptable single set.

We begin with a gloomily dark stage and gloomily dark soft eerie music from the orchestra.  Slowly, gracefully, one-by-one the chorus enters.  These Hebrews bemoan their oppression by the Philistines.  (It’s not unlike Verdi’s mournful Hebrew chorus in Nabucco which premiered some forty years earlier.)  The chorus itself is a leading star in Samson et Dalila.    

Samson appears, in the person of Jonny Kaufman—and we get our first face-to-face experience of THAT VOICE!  Samson is the Old Testament embodiment of Hercules—and Kaufman has a truly Herculean voice.  He easily fills the hall—he fills the whole building!  This Samson could bring the temple down just by singing at it plena voce.  But it’s more than just a mighty voice;  it’s pure and beautifully controlled, and it’s uniform throughout its range—save for a little increase in glory as it lofts into those highest notes.  Such a Samson easily inspires his fellow Hebrews.

The plot is simple and well-known.  The Philistines fear Samson and enlist their most beautiful woman to seduce him and learn the secret to his remarkable strength.  As a true patriot Delilah eagerly accepts this task.  The Bible shows Samson as a notorious womanizer, so he should be easy pickings for her.

Melody Wilson is a familiar and beloved face on the Union Avenue stage.  She fills Delilah with confidence and allure, with bright knowing eyes and a killer smile.  Ms. Wilson is a much-in-demand mezzo-soprano.  As Delilah her voice is rich and lovely—even commanding.  She occasionally delves into contralto range—where she is quite at home and very sultry. 

Supporting roles are in capable hands:  Fitzgerald St Louis is a very forceful presence as Abimélech, the Philistine satrap (governor) of Gaza.  For my money he was killed way too soon in the show.  Eliam Ramos sings the High Priest of Dagon with great authority and a strong sense of drama;  he’s a fitting foe for Samson. 

 Veteran baritone Jacob Lassetter, in warning Samson against yielding to Delilah’s charms, brings more dignity and authority than might be expected to a role described in the libretto merely as “an old Hebrew”.

Joel Rogier and Thomas M. Taylor IV as unnamed Philistines demonstrate an important practice often seen at Union Avenue Opera:  the casting of significant talents in even the smaller roles.  This can make the difference between a merely “good” production and a “great” one.

And oh, the chorus!  These eight men and eight women bring such splendid voices to this production!  And Saint-Saëns gives them such varied and beauteous passages to sing—mournful, mysterious, supplicatory, celebratory.  They appear now as impoverished Hebrews, again as reveling Philistines, now as a solemn men’s choir,  again as a chorus of maidens bearing flowers.  Quite wonderful work!

Stage Director Kathryn Frady does splendid work throughout, but I was especially impressed by her movement of the chorus.  Its members often move easily, gracefully, naturally from one small group to another—all the while maintaining a beautiful “stage picture”.  In scenes when the chorus is imploring God the entire group finds itself directly facing the audience—as if we, the audience, were God himself.  This gives us the total benefit of all those gorgeous voices. 

Union Avenue Opera, now as always, focuses it’s impressive skills on music, not dance.  Nevertheless, this opera has a ballet sequence as part of the “bacchanale” in which the Philistines celebrate their victory over Samson.  Dancers Andrea Reed and Charles McCall give a breathtakingly lovely performance—which was choreographed by Ms. Reed.

Costumer Teresa Doggett, now working her twentieth season at Union Avenue Opera, again does excellent work.  The oppressed Hebrews are in tones of a dusty gray, while the decadent Philistines boast elegant colors.  Delilah appears in four delicious costumes; finally  in head-to-toe glittering, clinging gold, which Melody Wilson wears so very glamorously.

There are shortcomings in Saint-Saëns’ Samson et Dalila.  It’s short on melody; aside from the love duet and the bacchanale there’s nothing you’ll exit the theater whistling.  And the “book” is weak—but so is this tale in “The Book” (Judges 16).  Samson is not an admirable man—except in his facility in slaughtering the enemies of Jehovah.  His repeatedly ignoring Delilah’s blatant treachery—and his final yielding to her nagging—shows him not to be the brightest light on the tree.

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