Jean Fournet (above) conducts a performance of Camille Saint-Saëns’ SAMSON ET DALILA performed by the Netherlands Radio Orchestra in 1964. Audio only.
Listen here.
The principal artists are Samson: Jon Vickers; Dalila: Oralia Dominguez; Le Grand-Prêtre de Dagon: Ernest Blanc; Abimélech: Henk Driessen; Old Hebrew: Peter van der Bilt
The great Belgian mezzo-soprano Rita Gorr sings Dalila’s evocative aria “Printemps qui commence” from Camille Saint-Saëns’ SAMSON ET DALILA.
From the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City comes a 1998 performance of Camille Saint-Saëns’ SAMSON ET DALILA starring Barbara Dever and Placido Domingo. Genaro Sulvaràn is the High Priest, and Guido Guida conducts.
Watch and listen here.
Between 1992 and 2014, Barbara Dever sang nearly 100 performances with the Metropolitan Opera; I saw her excellent Amneris and Ulrica there. Genaro Sulvaràn sang the role of Count de Luna at he Met in 1999 and made a vivid impression.
In the aftermath of the opening night performance of a new SAMSON ET DALILA at The Met, the folks on The List and at Parterre are discussing favorite interpreters of the opera’s title roles; the name of Mignon Dunn came up.
Mignon was a great favorite of mine and her performances in such roles as Laura in GIOCONDA, Fricka in the RING Cycle, Anna in TROYENS, Brangaene in TRISTAN UND ISOLDE, and Ortrud in LOHENGRIN are among my fondest operatic memories.
In 1985, I had the good fortune to see Mignon Dunn as Dalila in a production by the Connecticut Opera Association at The Bushnell in Hartford. She and her co-stars, Jon Frederic West and Charles Karel, sang powerfully whilst doing what they could dramatically in an old-style, rather campy setting.
In the course of my two-year project of rescuing music from my vast cassette collection, I was able to preserve this recording of Mignon singing Dalila’s opening aria from Act II with piano from a radio program in 1975 which I taped off the air:
Mignon Dunn – Amour viens aider ma faiblesse – SAMSON & DALILA – Met Marathon 1975
I’ll be seeing the Met’s new SAMSON ET DALILA twice in the coming weeks: once with each cast.
~ Oberon
Oberon's Glade 