From the Biblical "Book of Judges" to Milton's 1671 "Samson Agonistes" - which coined the phrase "Eyeless in Gaza" that gave Aldous Huxley's great 1936 novel its name - including the giant Harapha of Gath (what a name!) and enough iterations of the number 30 to make prominent kabbalist Madonna's head spin, Samson has had a complex, intriguing history. Saint-Saens and his librettist, Ferdinand Lemaire, simplified the story for the 1877 "Samson et Dalila" - boy loves girl, girl betrays boy, boy brings down the temple. Of course, there is also music, a pagan orgy (inevitably made hilariously grotesque by hapless choreographers), good roles for the tenor and the mezzo, and visual delights aplenty. Tonight, at the opening of the San Francisco Opera season, there was much to see. Dede Wilsey aparently bought up all the roses in Equador, to decorate the War Memorial (in the theater, the lobby, the gala tents) with astonishing configurations of densely-packed flowers. On stage, a well-preserved revival of the 2001 production here, Douglas W. Schmidt's phantasmagoric sets, Carrie Robbins'opulent costumes (although did the young Philistine women really look like Tahitian hula girls?), and - sorry to give the story away - the collapse of the temple that didn't look nearly as impressive as six years ago. Returning also from 2001, Olga Borodina as Delilah. Back then, this was the report: "If she managed to sustain her best more frequently, she could easily be one of the great singers in our time. But she doesn't, so she isn't. And that's truly too bad because there are few mezzos in the world with her instrument and ability. Borodina, of all singers, should not revert to routine as often as she does, shouldn't settle for the languid, the mild-mannered, the obvious." Against that history, tonight's Act 1 was musically exciting. Ian Robertson's chorus successfully struggled against Patrick Summers' thundering orchestra (with a much better balance for the rest of the evening), Eric Jordan made a sensational "true French singer" debut in the five-minute "throwaway role" of Abimelech, before being beaten to death, and then came Borodina, singing quietly, beautifully, astonishingly well. Alas, by Act 2, non-communicative (uncaring?), calling-the-performance-in Borodina returned, making the 41-minute act feel twice as long as the 43-minute first act. What is Delilah without passion, without believability, without intensity? It's a mezzo, with a gorgeous voice, doing the work that has to be done. NOT to get applause after "Mon coeur s'ouvre a ta voix" from an audience which greets the tiki-loaded temple of Dagon heartily tells the story right there. As to Samson, your heart must go out to Clifton Forbis. Imagine that you're a tenor, taking the stage immediately after the company general manager asks for a moment of silence in honor of Luciano Pavarotti (who made a half dozen important role debuts in this house), the silence broken by a recording of "Nessun dorma" - and now you're on, "top that!" Also, wearing the same wig and costume Placido Domingo had here in 1980 didn't do much good for Forbis. The tenor, who has the voice and stamina for Tristan, had neither for Samson on this occasion. It was not a poor performance, but not a particularly good one either. As to chemistry, if Borodina wouldn't know passion if the Philistine god Dagon had a private affair with her, Forbis was much too busy marshalling his troubled resources tonight to pay any attention to the woman with the shears. Juha Uusatilo, the solid Dutchman here a few years back, was the adequate but indifferent High Priest. A question to the supertitle manager: did Hebrews really sing (in Act 1) "(we) the meek became the oppressors"? Just how close is that to the French text? And question in general: what is one to do with 50,000 used roses? Janos Gereben www.sfcv.org [log in to unmask] *********************************************** The CLASSICAL mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's HDMail High Deliverability Mailer for reliable, lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html