Charles-Camille Saint Saëns. Danse Bacchanale from Samson and Dalila (1877)

Performed by the Bemidji Symphony Orchestra (BSO) led by guest conductor Dr. Abbie Eads at the BSO’s Revel in Ravel concert, held at Bemidji High School Auditorium on April 23, 2023.
PROGRAM NOTES
French composer Camille Saint-Saëns lived a long life and enjoyed a long career. His operatic masterpiece Samson et Dalila was first staged in 1877. The story of the opera (from the Bible, Judges 16) is as follows: Samson is chosen by the Israelites to free them from the snares of the evil Philistines. The beautiful Philistine maiden Dalila has fallen deeply in love with Samson, but he can never love her, so she swears vengeance on him. Samson’s great strength somehow flows to him from his hair and in an unguarded moment Delila cuts it all off, rendering him weak and defenseless. Next, she blinds him and chains him to a pillar of the Philistine temple.
The crowd takes joy in his humiliation and begins a wild dance (the Danse Bacchanale, named after Bacchus, the god of wine and giver of ecstasy) that puts a premium on sensuality and abandon. Saint-Saëns’s seven-minute orgy opens with a twistingly beautiful chromatic melody that arches as it turns and sways. This is followed by a passage that begins as though it might have come from a nineteenth-century Parisian dance hall! These elements alternate until the appearance of a third melody, full of resigned longing, perhaps reminding the listener the hero must die. Finally, the chromatic melody and the dance music return to conclude this short operatic excerpt.
As the dancers become exhausted from their tempestuous frolics, Samson prays to God for one last surge of strength and when his prayer is granted, he dislodges the temple pillars, bringing down the roof on himself and crushing the godless crowd.
(Program notes are from the Bemidji Symphony Orchestra’s 2022-23 concert program, p. 42. and were written by Dr. Patrick Riley.)