Samson and Delilah in Antwerp: a curious and unattractive interpretation, Sarah Nathan-Whyte

"[...] Samson standing triumphantly above the crowd wrapped in a suicide belt, and it was a frankly nauseating moment to see an Old Testament hero portrayed in this manner."

"The Jewish army marches and dances brandishing their automatic weapons in an excess of sexual innuendo, the Philistines are brutally and literally trodden upon, the choreography and movement features Jewish virgins on their backs with their legs spread wide while other male characters sodomise happily, trousers dropped around their ankles ... vulgar and coarse ..."

"How can an audience applaud suicide-bombing which is not a theatrical device but an everyday event for many, and not only in today's Israel or Palestine. It happens every day in Iraq and Afghanistan and many young European soldiers have lost their lives."

Source: article by Sarah Nathan-Whyte at EJP

ANTWERP (EJP) --- The news that Camille Saint-Saëns opera Samson and Delilah was to be given a new production by an Israeli-Palestinian team in Antwerp caused some interest and a certain amount of disquiet, not to say consternation, amongst the Jewish population of this Belgian city and not entirely without justification.

It was a curious and unattractive interpretation causing a dichotomy between political over-simplification and total confusion. The production was directed by veteran Israeli Omri Nitzan and his Palestinian protegé Amir Nizar Zuabi, the young, polite, good-looking and young man born "on the wrong side of the wall".

To be fair his point of view was easier to understand than that of his Jewish colleague.

What was the idea ? Simply to reverse the ethnicities of the protagonists/antagonists... Samson (Torsten Kerl) becomes a Philistine, Delilah the Jewish princess (Marianna Tarasova). So far, so seemingly simple.

What went wrong? Apart from muddle-headed thinking the staging often verged upon the silly, confusing and, to a non-Gentile audience, disturbing. The Jewish army marches and dances brandishing their automatic weapons in an excess of sexual innuendo, the Philistines are brutally and literally trodden upon, the choreography and movement features Jewish virgins on their backs with their legs spread wide while other male characters sodomise happily, trousers dropped around their ankles ... vulgar and coarse ...

The problems much of the audience had, but not all, were manifold, but the details are too numerous to mention in this interpretation.

The final moments of the opera saw Samson standing triumphantly above the crowd wrapped in a suicide belt, and it was a frankly nauseating moment to see an Old Testament hero portrayed in this manner.

The idea of oppressor versus oppressed is scarcely an original idea, but the result of this ill-conceived production was, almost to be expected in today's political climate, one-sided and left many people bewildered and uncomfortable ... how can an audience applaud suicide-bombing which is not a theatrical device but an everyday event for many, and not only in today's Israel or Palestine. It happens every day in Iraq and Afghanistan and many young European soldiers have lost their lives..

Musically the evening was saved by the orchestral playing led brilliantly by Tomas Netopil.

However, much of the blame for the above must be taken by the Flemish Opera itself for the endless publicity on every page, newsletter and programme showing a young stone-throwing Palestinian child (on stage she is needlessly killed). The opera itself was carried along afterwards by a series of debates and lectures, even a Samson and Delilah weekend.

Other reviewers may have seen this differently, but to this one it felt like a successful propaganda exercise.

See also
- Belgian opera shows Jew raping woman in anti-Israel piece
- Belgian Jews criticize Flanders Opera for staging anti-Israel premiere
- View from America: Eyeless in Antwerp - Intifada at the opera