Handell – Samson 44 – 48 Harry Bicket – English Concert
BBC Prom
Susan Gritton – Dalila
Iestyn Davies – Micah
Mark Padmore – Samson
Neal Davies – Manoa
Christopher Purves – Harapha
Lucy Crowe – Israelite woman / Philsitine woman / Virgin
Ben Johnson – Israelite man / Philistine man / Messenger
The Choir of The English Concert
The New Company
The English Concert
Harry Bicket conductor
BBC Prom – Royal Albert Hall
20 August 2009
Händel: Traitor to love & To man God’s universal law (from SAMSON)
44. Duet
Dalila
Traitor to love! I’ll sue no more
For pardon scorn’d, your threats give o’er!
Samson
Traitress to love! I’ll hear no more
The charmer’s voice, your arts give o’er!
Exeunt Dalila and Virgins.
45. Recitative
Micah
She’s gone! A serpent manifest, her sting
Discover’d in the end.
Samson
So let her go!
God sent her here to aggravate my folly.
46. Air
Micah
It is not virtue, valour, wit,
Or comeliness of grace
That woman’s love can truly hit,
Or in her heart claim place.
Still wav’ring where their choice to fix,
Too oft they choose the wrong:
So much self-love does rule the sex,
They nothing else love long.
It is not virtue. . . da capo
47. Recitative
Samson
Favour’d of heaven is he, who finds one true.
How rarely found! — His way to peace is smooth.
48. Chorus of Israelites
To man God’s universal law
Gave pow’r to keep the wife in awe.
Thus shall his life be ne’er dismay’d,
By female usurpation sway’d.