Samson et Dalila : Nitzan & Zuabi, Netopil / Flanders Opera, Kerl, M.Tarasova, Mijailovic, etc (2009 Stereo)

Saint-Saens: Samson et Dalila
Recorded live at the Vlaamse Opera Antwerpen/Gent, 2009

Torsten Kerl, Marianna Tarasova, Nikola Mijailovic
Gijs Van der Linden, Tijl Faveyts, Milcho Borovinov
Thorsten Buttner, Gill Eeckelaert
Symphonic Orchestra and Choir of the Flanders Opera / Tomas Netopil, conductor

Omri Nitzan and Amir Nizar Zuabi (directors)

Bonus: The Making of Samson et Dalila - including interviews with the production team and Torsten Kerl

Running time: 122 mins (+ Bonus 16 mins)
Booklet notes: English, German, French

Using the example of the impossible love between the Jew Samson and the Philistine Dalila, Camille Saint-Saens shows the deadly conflict between two hostile cultures and religions.

Staged by the Flanders Opera Company in Antwerp in 2009, Saint-Saens’ opera Samson et Dalila is re-located in this production to the contemporary Middle East. The two directors, Israeli Omri Nitzan and Palestinian Amir Nizar Zuabi, explore the tensions between different nations and religions, and the complex relationship between the oppressors and the oppressed. ‘In our approach to this opera we tried to move away from the quasi-biblical interpretation, and to place the story in today’s world to explain its political aspects better,’ say the two directors. ‘Acts of terror by a state will lead to acts of terror against a state, which in turn will lead to more terror by the state and this completes the vicious circle.’