Why, why, why Dalila? More disappointment at Unter den Linden

Brandon Jovanovich (Samson) and Elīna Garanča (Dalila)

By Hugo Shirley, 26 November 2019

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“underripe, tepid when it should sizzle, small-screen where it should have been in full cinemascope”

Reviewed at Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin on 24 November 2019

Saint-Saëns, Samson et Dalila

Staatsoper Berlin

Daniel Barenboim, Conductor

Damián Szifron, Director

Étienne Pluss, Set Designer

Gesine Völlm, Costume Designer

Brandon Jovanovich, Samson

Elīna Garanča, Dalila

Michael Volle, High Priest of Dagon

Kwangchul Youn, Abimélech

Wolfgang Schöne, The Old Hebrew

Andrés Moreno García, First Philistine

Jaka Mihelač, Second Philistine

Olaf Freese, Lighting Designer

Jana Beckmann, Dramaturgy

Staatsopernchor Berlin

Martin Wright, Choirmaster / chorus director

Staatskapelle Berlin

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Mark Pullinger, 29th March

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***11

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*****

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****1

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**111

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***11

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Elena Luporini, 19th July

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**111

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Hugo Shirley

Hugo Shirley is a Berlin-based writer and musicologist. He has written widely as a critic in the UK, including for The Spectator, the Financial Times and Daily Telegraph, and has held editorial posts at both Opera and Gramophone. He was editor of 30-Second Opera (Ivy Press, 2015) and has a PhD in musicology from King's College London, where his thesis focused on Strauss and Hofmannsthal’s Die Frau ohne Schatten.