Ferdinand Lemaire Tickets

Ferdinand Lemaire (1832–1879) was a French librettist and poet, best known for writing the libretto of Camille Saint-Saëns's opera Samson et Dalila.

Lemaire was a creole, originally from Martinique, and had married a cousin of Saint-Saëns's wife. Saint-Saëns had previously set two of his poems, “Souvenance” and “Tristesse”, for voice and piano.[2] Approached by the composer to write an oratorio on the story of Samson and Delilah, Lemaire agreed, but only if the work was to be an opera.