SAMSON ET DALILA:Saint-Saëns
Original Air Date: 02/25/2006
Villaume; Forbis, Borodina, Lafont
SID.19350213
This is one of only two Met broadcasts of Samson with Borodina. The earlier one is the opening night of the 1998-1999 season (not a matinee broadcast) with Domingo which was subsequently issued on DVD and is available in MOoD. For my money Borodina is the best Dalila since Gorr, and one is better off with the 1998 performance. Villaume’s conducting of the 2006 performance is not without elan, but Borodina is who you want to hear on both performances, and she’s better in 1998. This is the most recent Samson broadcast, and is certainly worth a listen for Borodina, the most glamorous voice to have ever graced a Samson broadcast. Let me put in a pitch for the 1972 broadcast with Bumbry and McCracken in parts they are not widely heard in and you still have Bacquier setting the standard for High Priest.
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