Anita Rachvelishvili in new Metropolitan Opera production of ‘Samson et Dalila’
Anita Rachvelishvili photographed through the fitting of her costume for ‘Samson et Dalila’. Photo: The Metropolitan Opera.
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Georgian opera star Anita Rachvelishvili will be a principal performer in the first new production of Samson et Dalila at New York’s famed Metropolitan Opera in two decades, when she steps on the stage this week.
Produced by Darko Tresnjak, a winner of the 2014 Best Direction of a Musical Award, the staging of the biblical drama will see the mezzo-soprano appear as Dalila in five shows at the Met.
The Tresnjak redaction has been described in previews as “vivid, seductive staging, featuring a monumental setting for the last-act Temple of Dagon, where the hero crushes his Philistine enemies”.
#OTD in 1895, Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila had its Metropolitan Opera premiere. This spring, Darko Tresnjak’s vibrant production takes the stage, starring mezzo-soprano @anitarachveli and tenor Aleksandrs Antoneko. https://t.co/SPuCIccyB8.
— Metropolitan Opera (@MetOpera) February 8, 2019
Photo: Ken Howard / Met Opera pic.twitter.com/1a8cZ7owzC
This setting will be brought to life through costumes by Linda Cho and set design by Alexander Dodge, augmented by Donald Holder’s lighting and choreography by Austin McCormick.
The 1877-premiered work was created by Camille Saint-Saens on libretto by Ferdinand Lemaire. It will be performed in French at the Met to present a 1150 BCE setting in Gaza.
Rachvelishvili, who received acclaim for her Metropolitan role in Adriana Lecouvreur in January, will be cast in the principal role in bills between March 13-28.
The Georgian singer was also on the Met stage earlier this season as Amneris in Aida. She debuted at the New York venue in 2011 in the principal role in Carmen.