BRATTLEBORO — Virtually everyone knows about Samson and Delilah.
In the story, perhaps best exemplified in the 1949 Hollywood film of the same name with Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr that was revived at the Latchis last month, an Israelite strongman meets the seductress Delilah who cuts off his hair so that he loses his strength and becomes the captive of the Philistines who blind him. Nevertheless, he musters enough strength in the end to knock down the temple, killing all the Philistines, as well as himself.
Handel's Samson is a significantly different tale.
On Saturday, May 16, at 7:30 p.m., and on Sunday, May 17, at 3 p.m. at the Latchis Theatre in downtown Brattleboro, Susan Dedell, marking her 25th year as the director of the Brattleboro Concert Choir, presents Georg Frederic Handel's oratorio, Samson, performed by the Brattleboro Concert choir, orchestra, and soloists.
Tenor Karim Sulayman will portray Samson and soprano Junko Watanabe will sing Delilah. They will be joined with contralto Emily Jawarski as Samson's friend Micah, David McFerrin as the Philistine hero Harapha, and Charles Mays Jr. as Samson's father Manoah. Four of these soloists are veterans of the Marlboro Music Festival.
What new elements does Handel bring to the story of Samson and Delilah?
In Handel's Samson, the narrative begins when blind Samson has already been captured by the Philistines after Delilah has cut his hair. Handel based his work on Samson Agonistes, the great English poet John Milton's closet drama (a drama that really wasn't meant to be staged, but just read).
Although the original story is from Book of Judges in the Bible, Milton modeled his play on the tragedies of ancient Greece. Consequently, rather than the story of a man brought down by a calculating woman through sex, it is the story of a hero coming to terms with his own flaws and limitations.
“This oratorio is a broader look at the Samson myth, and although there is some evidence Samson may have actually existed, he has become an archetype like Hercules,” Dedell says. “Handel's work can be seen as allegorical, and highly dramatic in an archetypal way.”
Dedell writes in her program notes for this performance: “Samson stands as one of the ancient heroes of Israel, but he is a complicated character whose flaws seem as large as his muscles. Yet he was destined at birth to deliver the Hebrew people from the oppressive hands of the conquering Philistines, and his superhuman strength makes him seem invincible.
“[But once] humbled, he develops a more profound understanding of his true purpose in captivity, and his strength is restored. He ultimately brings about the downfall of the Philistines, sacrificing himself in the process.”
Dedell believes that the story of Samson has “many layers, and poses many questions which are relevant today: How does religion get used as a pretext for tribal domination? Do smart women bring about the downfall of men? How are we blinded by our own vanity? Have we evolved enough over the 2,500 years since this story was written down to look at it with new understanding?”
Samson and Delilah may sometimes seem just another highly sexist narrative about female usurpation but, through his music, Handel makes such a reading seem simplistic. In the glorious arias written for Delilah, Handel shows a great deal of sympathy with his much-maligned heroine.
“Handel stands outside the prejudices of the time and can be seen in a bigger light, which is why his work is so enduring,” says Dedell.
Although based on Milton and inspired by the classical Greeks, Handel's Samson may be more fruitfully compared with the works of William Shakespeare.
“Like Shakespeare's plays, Handel's dramas are audience-friendly,” Dedell says. “Handel, also like Shakespeare, sees that a story can contain many different meanings. Handel, too, is really great at blending tragedy and comedy.”
Dedell describes a Samson full of many moods.
“The language of Samson is often funny, which suddenly can shift the tone in an often heavy piece,” she says.
Dedell says that as a composer, Handel is singular in his ability to depict highly nuanced dramas.
“In Samson, he portrays not only the inherent tragedy of this story, but also forecasts elements of growing humanity and wisdom,” she writes. “Handel's genius lies in creating believable scenarios, so that the audience identifies with the dramatic action and becomes vested in the outcome.
“The orchestral writing plays a huge part in creating highly changeable atmospheres that function like theatrical sets - trumpets herald heroic action; rumbling cellos forecast doom; and sinuous oboes herald the arrival of Delilah.”
In his hands, not only the soloists who play parts like Samson, Delilah, and Micah become believable and nuanced characters, but so does the chorus, which can represent many things, including the two conflicting people of Israel and Philistine.
In many of his oratorios, Handel depicts Israel in conflict with other cultures, but the surprising feature of his works is that he seems sympathetic to all sides of the dilemma. This is especially true of Samson, where some of his most exciting music goes to the “villains” of the piece, Delilah and her Philistine cohorts.
While the Israelites seem profound and holy, the Philistines come across as a lot more fun.
Perhaps because Samson is about multicultural conflicts, Dedell has assembled singers with diverse backgrounds. For instance, Karim Sulayman, who sings Samson, lives in Paris and is Lebanese; Junko Watanabe, who plays Delilah, is from Japan; and Charles Mays Jr., who plays Micah, is African-American.
“I am loving the diversity to the physical types of these singers,” says Dedell.
Although based on a story from the Bible, Dedell does not see Samson as a particularly religious work. With a wide array of emotions from tragic gravity to festive exuberance, Handel's Samson is not a somber work in the tradition of Bach's passions, but in many ways it is more aligned to the secular 18th century opera.
Handel, a German composer who wrote Italian music in London, only began writing oratorios when the fickle British public turned against his foreign language operas. In fact, by writing the English-text oratorios based on stories from the Bible, Handel was creating for his audiences a new genre, which came closest to establishing a viable native English language music drama until the mid-20th century.
Dedell says that Samson was Handel's favorite of all his compositions. Perhaps he greatly identified with the hero for, like Samson, Handel became blind at the end of his life.
At the end of Handel's oratorio, as in all the versions of the story, blinded Samson in chains pushes the pillars during the Philistine victory celebration to make the temple collapse.
“Things have to be pulled down to start again new,” says Dedell. “The same conflicts that animate Samson still exist today. Nothing much has changed. Perhaps that may be why there has been such a renewed interest in this work. After I chose to perform it, I discovered that it recently was performed in Boston, Washington, D.C., and the Proms in Great Britain, and there are rumors blowing in the wind that the Dartmouth Handel Society is considering doing it.”
Handel's oratorios were written to be performed as a concert hall work, just the way Dedell is presenting Samson at the Latchis. But with greasepaint in his blood, the composer would have probably relished the sight of his oratorios on stage.
In fact, over the years Samson has been performed with sets and costumes in operas houses such as The Metropolitan Opera in Manhattan and Covent Garden in London.
Highlighting the contemporary relevance of this 18th century baroque oratorio, Dedell suggests, “It would be interesting to stage Samson in a contemporary setting to underscore the conflicts of today.”
An Israeli Samson and a Palestinian Delilah perhaps?