Qui lui donna le jour!
Qu'enfin une compagne infame
Trahisse son amour!


Revolutions run a rapid course in operatic Palestine. The
insurrection is but begun with the slaying of Abimelech, yet as the
Philistines, bearing away his body, leave the scene, it is only to
make room for the Israelites, chanting of their victory. We expect
a sonorous hymn of triumph, but the people of God have been
chastened and awed by their quick deliverance, and their paean is
in the solemn tone of temple psalmody, the first striking bit of
local color which the composer has introduced into his score--a
reticence on his part of which it may be said that it is all the
more remarkable from the fact that local color is here completely
justified:--

[figure: a musical score excerpt, sung to the words "Praise, ye
Jehovah! Tell all the wondrous story! Psalms of praise loudly
swell!]

"Hymne de joie, hymne de deliverance
Montez vers l'Eternel!"


It is a fine piece of dramatic characterization; which is followed
by one whose serene beauty is heightened by contrast. Dalila and a
company of singing and dancing Philistine women come in bearing
garlands of flowers. Not only Samson's senses, our own as well, are
ravished by the delightful music:--