MUSIC : ‘Samson’ Didn’t Bring Down the House in France

France was one of the last countries to recognize the importance of Camille Saint-Saens’ “Samson et Dalila,” although many today consider it the quintessential French opera.

Opera Pacific will continue its cycle of presenting French operas with four performances of “Samson” beginning Saturday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

The work, based on the biblical story in the Book of Judges, had its premiere in German in 1877 at the Hoftheater in Weimar, Germany, thanks to the championship of Franz Liszt. Paris waited 13 more years before bothering to produce it.

The French apparently considered “Samson” an overly serious, gloomy opera. Worse, it represented too much modernism for the taste of the day.

Paris was then beset by factionalism between adherents of tradition and those of Wagnerism, the so-called “music of the future.” Saint-Saens was regarded almost as a member of the radical fringe, with his advocacy of Wagner and other dangerous composers such as Schumann and Liszt.

In time, of course, Saint-Saens and his music would come to signify the stultifyingly conservative. During World War I, he would demand the banning of German music in France; during the same period he also would express detestation for the music of Debussy, among other young French composers of the time. But he was virtually speechless with horror at the Paris premiere of Stravinsky’s “Le Sacre du Printemps” in 1913.

Saint-Saens, who was born in 1835, was a musically brilliant child who had perfect pitch and who wrote his first piano piece shortly after his third birthday. He made his formal debut as a pianist at the age of 10 at the famous Salle Pleyel, where, as an encore, he offered to play any one of Beethoven’s piano sonatas from memory.

But his mother steered him away from the heady life of a child prodigy, later enrolling him in the Paris Conservatory of Music, where, not surprisingly, he excelled in all his subjects. The coveted Prix de Rome eluded him when he entered the competition at age 17, however, and by the time he got back to entering the competition, he was 30 and considered too established a composer to win such a prize.

Saint-Saens made a reputation as a piano virtuoso and organist as well as a composer. He spent 20 years as organist of the prestigious Madeleine Church, where his improvisations prompted Liszt to declare him the greatest in the world.

But faced with a music establishment that favored programming only the classics--by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven--to the exclusion of contemporary music, Saint-Saens turned to the only outlet available to him and other young composers--the theater.

In all, he would write 13 operas, but “Samson,” set to a libretto by Ferdinand Lemaire, would be the only one to hold the stage.

Ironically, the intoxicating sensualism of the music he wrote for the temptress Delilah (as she is referred to in English) and the famous Bachannale are not exactly typical of the French composer. Clarity, elegance and sophistication are more in his line.

Despite the title, the most memorable music belongs to Delilah, not Samson. She has two famous solos: “Printemps qui commence” (Oh spring that is coming) and “Amour, viens aider ma faiblesse” (Love, come to aid my frailty).

Even the famous duet “Mon coeur s’ouvre a ta voix” (Softly awakes my heart) strikes the listener more as a solo for the mezzo-soprano, with the tenor only occasionally piping in.

Saint-Saens worked on the opera cautiously, writing Delilah’s two solos first and trying them out to a select group of friends, who did not like them at all. A second audition resulted in a similar opinion. Discouraged, he put the work aside for two years, returning to it only at the urging of his friend Liszt.

With the intervention of the Franco-Prussian War, Saint-Saens went to Algeria, where he completed the third act.

When he returned, his friend Pauline Viadot-Garcia, the great singer, had prepared a surprise for him: a private staging of the entire second act of “Samson et Dalila.” Unfortunately, critics at the performance complained of an “absence of melody” and “an instrumentation which nowhere rises above the level of the ordinary.”

Only Liszt’s promise of a premiere in Germany induced him to complete the work. Eventually, of course, “Samson et Dalila” would become a popular staple in the repertory. Even in France.

What: Camille Saint-Saens’ “Samson et Dalila.”

When: Saturday, Feb. 29, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, March 1, at 2 p.m. (Also March 5 and 6 at 8 p.m.)

Where: Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa.

Whereabouts: San Diego (405) Freeway to Bristol Street exit. North to Town Center Drive. (Center is one block east of South Coast Plaza.)

Wherewithal: $20 to $75.

Where to Call: (714) 740-2000 (TicketMaster).