“Then Samson fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek; her name was Delilah. The lords of the Philistines came to her and said to her: Try to beguile him and find out where his great strength lies and how we can overpower him to shackle him.” Thus the Bible tells the story of the superhuman strength of Samson, who forfeits his strength – and his closeness to God and his people – for the sake of his love for Delilah. And who fails in his struggle for freedom. In his opera Saint-Saëns tells the story of conflict between two nations and two people. And he drafts a timeless story that ranges from heartfelt longing for love to ecstatic bacchanal. In the protagonists we have the prototypes of the opera repertoire: strong characters, oscillating between love, betrayal and death.