Camille Saint-Saens (1835 - 1921)
Bacchanal from "Samson & Delilah", Op. 47

Saint-Saens originally conceived Samson & Delilah as an oratorio. His librettist however convinced him that the dramatic situations of the plot were far better exploited in a staged opera. Unfortunately, biblical settings as subjects for an opera were frowned upon, and consequently the finished opera found no takers among French promoters. His friend Franz Liszt helped to get the opera premiered in Germany in December 1877. However, it took another 13 years before Samson & Delilah was produced in France, at Rouen, and later that same year, 1890, in Paris.

A single concert performance was given in 1893, in English, at London's Covent Garden. The opera was subsequently banned by the Lord Chamberlain, on religious grounds. The first staging at Covent Garden took place after the ban was lifted in 1909, on the order of King Edward VII who, it is said, "rather enjoyed the Bacchanal".