Handel: Samson | Harpenden Choral Society

Handel’s oratorio Samson, a setting by the librettist Newburgh Hamilton based on Milton’s Samson Agonistes, was composed immediately following Messiah. The first performance, on 18 February 1743 was a great success, with six further performances in its first season in London.

Telling the story of the last days of Samson’s life, the oratorio opens with Samson in prison in Gaza, captured and blinded by the Philistines, and ends with his death as he brings down the pillars of the temple, killing himself and a great number of his enemies.

This glorious and dramatic work contains two of Handel’s most celebrated arias: Total Eclipse and Let the bright seraphim.