Of living French composers Camille Saint Saens is the unquestioned head, but he is known to fame principally by his successes in the concert-room.  Many of his operas achieved only succes d’estime, though not one of them is without beauty of a high order.  Over ’La Princesse Jaune’ (1872) and ‘Le Timbre d’ Argent’ (1877) there is no need to linger.  ‘Samson et Dalila,’ his first work of importance, was produced at Weimar in 1877, but, in spite of its success there and in other German towns, did not find its way on to a Parisian stage until 1890.  The libretto follows the Biblical narrative with tolerable fidelity.  In the first act, Samson rouses the Israelites to arms, kills the Philistine leader and disperses their army.  In the second he visits Dalila in the Vale of Sorek, tells her the secret of his strength, and is betrayed into the hands of the Philistines.  The third act shows Samson, blind and in chains, grinding at a mill.  The scene afterwards changes to the temple of Dagon, where a magnificent festival is in progress.  Samson is summoned to make sport for the Philistine lords, and the act ends with the destruction of the temple, and the massacre of the Philistines.  Saint Saens is the Proteus of modern music, and his scores generally reveal the traces of many opposing influences.  The earlier scenes of ‘Samson et Dalila’ are conceived in the spirit of oratorio, and the choral writing, which is unusually solid and dignified, often recalls the massive style of Handel.  In the second act he exhausts the resources of modern passion and colour, and in the Philistine revels of the third act he makes brilliant and judicious use of Oriental rhythms and intervals.  Guiding themes are used in the opera, but not to any important extent, and the construction of the score owes very little to Wagner.  Yet though the main outlines of the work adhere somewhat closely to a type which is now no longer popular, there is little fear of ‘Samson et Dalila’ becoming old-fashioned.  The exquisite melody with which it overflows, combined with the inimitable art of the orchestration, make it one of the most important and attractive works of the modern French school.  ‘Etienne Marcel’ (1879) and ‘Proserpine’ (1887) must be classed among Saint Saens’s failures, but ‘Henry VIII.’ is a work of high interest, which, though produced so long ago as 1883, is still popular in Paris.  The action of the piece begins at the time when Henry is first smitten with the charms of Anne Boleyn, who for his sake neglects her former admirer, Don Gomez, the Spanish Ambassador.  Negotiations regarding the King’s divorce with Catherine of Aragon are set on foot, and, when the Pope refuses to sanction it, Henry proclaims England independent of the Roman Church, amidst the acclamations of the people.  In the last act Anne is queen.  Catherine, who is at the point of death, has in her possession a compromising letter from Anne to Don Gomez.  Henry is devoured by jealousy, and comes, accompanied by Don Gomez, to try to obtain possession of the incriminating document.  Anne comes also for the same purpose.  This is the strongest scene in the opera.  Henry, in order to incite Catherine to revenge, speaks to Anne in his tenderest tones, but the divorced queen rises to the occasion.  Praying for strength to resist the temptation, she throws the letter into the fire and falls down dead.