SAMSON

[...] On tonight’s programme is a run-through of the opera’s overture and prologue, accompanied by harpsichord and organ in the absence of the orchestra. We are indeed watching a scénique clavecin — i.e. a ‘harpsichord rehearsal’ of the staging before the presence of the full orchestra. At the microphone, in a friendly but firm voice, Raphaël Pichon gives some brief musical instructions to the choir and a recap of everyone’s positions: Can they hear the instruments from the back of the stage? Do they remember when to enter? Once these practical issues are resolved, the rehearsal can begin. In the darkness of the oncoming night, the lighting and video effects bring the set to life. Alone on stage, actress Andréa Ferréol, an Aix-en-Provence native known for her numerous film roles, such as those in La Grande Bouffe and The Last Métro, plays Samson’s mother: as narrator, she recalls the birth and childhood of her long-desired son, whose strength has proved to be both a gift and a burden. In the pit, the Hebrew choir express their sorrow in song in the poignant ‘Tribus captives’, an adaptation of the chorus ‘Que tout gémisse’ from Castor et Pollux. Samson, embodied by the towering Jarrett Ott, must deliver his people from the Philistines. [...]