Trivia / Samson et Dalila

• All-Star Cast: As Samson, Dalila, and the High Priest of Dagon...
  • Audio Recordings:
    • 1949, conducted by Emil Cooper: Ramón Vinay, Risë Stevens, and Robert Merrill.
    • 1962, conducted by Georges Prêtre: Jon Vickers, Rita Gorr, and Ernest Blanc.
    • 1964, conducted by Jean Fournet: Jon Vickers, Oralia Domínguez, and Ernest Blanc.
    • 1978, conducted by Daniel Barenboim: Plácido Domingo, Elena Obraztsova, and Renato Bruson.
    • 1982, conducted by Sir Colin Davis: Jon Vickers, Shirley Verrett, and Jonathan Summers.
    • 1989, conducted by Sir Colin Davis (again): José Carreras, Agnes Baltsa, and Jonathan Summers.
    • 1991, conducted by Myung-whun Chung: Plácido Domingo, Waltraud Meier, and Alain Fondary.
    • 1998, conducted by Sir Colin Davis: José Cura, Olga Borodina, and Jean-Philippe Lafont.
  • Video Recordings:
    • 1980, conducted by Julius Rudel at the San Francisco Opera: Plácido Domingo, Shirley Verrett, Wolfgang Brendel.
    • 1998, conducted by James Levine at the Met Opera: Plácido Domingo, Olga Borodina, Sergei Leiferkus.
    • 2018, conducted by Sir Mark Elder at the Met Opera: Roberto Alagna, Elina Garanca, Laurent Naouri.
• Referenced by...: The prologue of My Cousin mentions Cesare Caroli is famous for many opera performs, among them being Samson in Samson And Dalila.
• Star-Making Role: The role of Dalila was what brought Russian mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina to fame when she first performed it alongside Domingo at Covent Garden.
• What Could Have Been: Saint-Saëns originally envisioned Samson et Dalila as an oratorio and pitched this idea to his librettist, Ferdinand Lemaire. However, it was Lemaire who convinced him to make it an opera. In fact, in the United Kingdom, it was sung as an oratorio for a very long time.