The authors looked forward to a production on the stage of the Grand Opera, where at least two Biblical operas, an Old Testament "Jephte" and a New Testament "Enfant prodigue" were current; but Rameau had powerful enemies, and the opera was prohibited on the eve of the day on which it was to have been performed.

The composer had to stomach his mortification as best he could; he put some of his Hebrew music into the service of his Persian "Zoroastre".

The other French Samson to whom I have re ferred had also to undergo a sea-change like unto Rameau's, Rossini's Moses, and Verdi's Nebuchadnezzar.

Duprez, who was ambitious to shine as a composer as well as a singer (he wrote no less than eight operas and also an oratorio, "The Last Judgment"), tried his hand on a Samson opera and succeeded in enlisting the help of Dumas the elder in writing the libretto.

When he was ready to present it at the door of the Grand Opera the Minister of Fine Arts told him that it was impracticable, as the stage-setting of the last act alone would cost more than 100,000 francs, Duprez then followed the example set with Rossini's "Mose" in London and changed the book to make it tell a story of the crusades which he called "Zephora".