Saint-Saëns thought the Samson and Delilah story would make a good oratorio. Oratorios were popular in the late 1860s. The city of Paris was offering a prize for a new one. Saint-Saëns asked a relative, Ferdinand Lemaire, to write the libretto. Lemaire thought the story of Samson and Delilah was better suited to an opera. He persuaded Saint-Saëns to write an opera instead of an oratorio. 