Samson et Dalila [ROH/Clive Barda]

IT’S the tale of a disastrous haircut, Samson and Delilah. Samson’s strength derives from his follicular abundance, but Delilah takes her shears to it. With consequences worse than a misshapen mullet.

For the details, see the Bible. For the passion that propels them, though, see Samson et Dalila by Saint-Saëns, which plays at the Royal Opera House May 13-Jun 3 in a revival of Richard Jones’s slightly bonkers 2022 production.

Tenor Seokjong Baek won plaudits as the male lead last time, and returns now for another trim. New to the scissors, Aigul Akhmetshina takes the female lead, and will undoubtedly invest it with the sexual allure for which she’s famous as the go-to Carmen on the circuit these days. Very much as Saint-Saëns asked for.

Not too bothered with religion, he was interested in the shimmering, exotic glamour of the East – which Richard Jones turns into razzmatazz so brazen you might want to shield your eyes. But as a spectacle it’s entertaining. And the singing should be fabulous. rbo.org.uk

• No spectacle in Poulenc’s The Carmelites at the Guildhall School May 11 & 13: it’s a student semi-staging that reduces the opera to essentials. But this is a work that delivers gut-punches – especially at the end when an entire community of nuns goes to the guillotine. And even if the Guildhall’s production doesn’t show you a guillotine, you’ll still hear one, as the sound of its falling blade is factored into Poulenc’s score. Macabre, chilling, and yours for nothing because tickets are free! gsmd.ac.uk

• Two interesting British composers have new works airing this week. May 13 at Kings Place brings the premiere of a Piano Quintet by Joseph Phibbs, who has a particular genius in chamber music: kingsplace.co.uk And lunchtime on May 8 at St Martin in the Fields, the young pianist/singer/composer Will Harmer presents, with friends, a programme of English music that includes his own songs: stmartin-in-the-fields.org

• The Gesualdo Six are one of those elite vocal consorts who sing with style, intensity and drama – and never more so than in a show they toured a while ago about the high-risk Catholic Mass settings William Byrd was writing in 16th-century Protestant England. Staged immersively, by candlelight, with the period band Fretwork, it was an alarming experience. And it’s back May 8-9 for performances at Smith Square under the title Secret Byrd. Not for those of nervous disposition. sinfoniasmithsq.org.uk

• Anyone too delicate for Secret Byrd might think twice about Leonard Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety: a symphony-cum-piano concerto inspired by the bleak post-war world view of WH Auden. But it’s a fascinating piece, played by the LSO at the Barbican, May 10. Pappano conducts. Denis Kozhukhin is the soloist. barbican.org.uk

And while he’s in London, Kozhukhin stays for a Wigmore Hall recital the following lunchtime, May 11. Haydn & Brahms. wigmore-hall.org.uk

• Later that evening, May 11, the dream-team of violinist Renaud Capuçon and pianist Igor Levit graces the Wigmore stage in all three violin sonatas by Brahms. wigmore-hall.org.uk

Meanwhile, two sumptuous mezzos, Sarah Connolly and Beth Taylor, join pianist Julius Drake in a mixed programme at Middle Temple Hall, May 12. templemusic.org

And firing on all cylinders just now, cellist Guy Johnston is at Wigmore Hall May 12 with pianist Melvyn Tan in a lunchtime programme that pairs the Barber sonata with a new work by composer, Matthew Kaner. wigmore-hall.org.uk