After the romantic period, which saw, alongside the triumph of Italian opera, the emergence of the great French opera with a historical theme, composers freed themselves from Italianism. From the beginning of the second half of the 19th century, Gounod inaugurated a lyrical style in accordance with the specific prosody of the French language. Delibes, Thomas and Massenet will follow this tradition. The Paris Opera and the Opéra-Comique set the tone and impose a canonical repertoire from which the great provincial and foreign stages will draw sustainably. In Vichy, the Théâtre du Grand Casino holds a place of choice both for the quantity of the shows offered and for their qualities. While the programming partly meets the expectations of a cosmopolitan society, French opera, considered here in its many genres, occupies the stage. Like Samson and Dalila – whose exhibition borrows its title from the famous courtesan tune – the cannons of Faust, Carmen, Manon, Mireille, Lakmé and Werther will never leave the headlines until the mid-1960s. This repertoire is complemented by works almost forgotten nowadays, such as Marc Delmas' La Giaour, premiered in Vichy in 1928. Bringing together important collections (posters, programs, scores, costumes, photographs, sets, busts, etc.), the exhibition is a major retrospective of the French Opera produced at the Théâtre du Grand Casino de Vichy for more than sixty years and aims to present at thebeyond the simple chronological aspect, a selection of works and composers under different themes revealing the processes, inspirations and traditions of this art.