There are but two musical works based on the story of Samson on the
current list to-day, Handel's oratorio and Saint-Saens's opera; but
lyric drama was still in its infancy when the subject first took
hold of the fancy of composers and it has held it ever since. The
earliest works were of the kind called sacred operas in the books
and are spoken of as oratorios now, though they were doubtless
performed with scenery and costumes and with action of a sort. Such
were "II Sansone" by Giovanni Paola Colonna (Bologna, 1677),
"Sansone accecato da Filistri" by Francesco Antonio Uri (Venice,
about 1700), "Simson" by Christoph Graupner (Hamburg, 1709),
"Simson" by Georg von Pasterwitz (about 1770), "Samson" by J. N.
Lefroid Mereaux (Paris, 1774), "Simson" by Johann Heinrich Rolle
(about 1790), "Simson" by Franz Tuczek (Vienna, 1804), and "Il
Sansone" by Francesco Basili (Naples, 1824). Two French operas are
associated with great names and have interesting histories.
Voltaire wrote a dramatic text on the subject at the request of La
Popeliniere, the farmer-general, who, as poet, musician, and
artist, exercised a tremendous influence in his day. Rameau was in
his service as household clavecinist and set Voltaire's poem. The
authors looked forward to a production on the stage of the Grand
Opera, where at least two Biblical operas, an Old Testament
"Jephte" and a New Testament "Enfant prodigue" were current; but
Rameau had powerful enemies, and the opera was prohibited on the
eve of the day on which it was to have been performed. The composer
had to stomach his mortification as best he could; he put some of
his Hebrew music into the service of his Persian "Zoroastre". The
other French Samson to whom I have re ferred had also to undergo a
sea-change like unto Rameau's, Rossini's Moses, and Verdi's