Mon Coeur S'ouvre a Ta Voix: Even Samson's Hair is Not Sultry Enough for Dalila's Voice

If you grew up reading the Torah or the Bible, then you are most likely already familiar with the story of how the Hebrew strong man Samson lost his hair (and, by extension, his strength) over the seductive Philistine Delilah and nearly brought about the downfall of his people. Well, Camille Saint Saëns, the romantic French composer, turned the story into a grand opera that is the only composition of his in this genre that is still performed regularly today, thanks in large part to the popularity of Dalila's 3rd aria, Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix.

The setting is in Dalila's chamber. The beautiful seductress had convinced Samson to agree to a rendezvous (they had been seeing each other on and off). He, bent on taking up the leadership of the Hebrew revolt, intends for this to be the last meeting between them as he places his duty to his tribe before his attraction to this fascinating (though regrettably Philistine) woman. Dalila, no less a patriot to her own tribe, has her own agenda, however. Samson is a formidable enemy to her people, and she finds the secret to his superhuman strength (and how to destroy it) a more valuable target than his love... But to get one, she must also get the other (after all, Samson is a man with a virulent hormone... among other things).

(click here to go to a sample clip of it on Youtube)
The evening air is full of romance-inducing exotic incenses courtesy of the orchestral strings (repeating this weird series of four 16th notes leaping between 4 different octaves... sort of reminds you of that screechy music that accompanies the stabbing knife in the famous shower scene from Hitchcock's Psycho, you know? It adds a nice spice to this scene of seduction... As drawn into it as you are, you just have a feeling that all won't end well for the guy) and the electrified instrumental background makes the sumptuously lush voice of Dalila sound even more sultry than it really is...

Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix,..... My heart opens to your voice,
comme s'ouvrent les fleurs........ like flowers blossoming
aux baiser de l'aurore!................ at the kiss of dawn!

Reinforced by the cor d'anglais echoing the final line, Dalila repeats her opening theme... just to make clear where she is (supposedly) coming from...

Mais, ô mon bien aimé,................ But, o my beloved,
pour mieux sécher mes pleurs,.. it would better dry my tears
que ta voix parle encore!............ to hear your voice again!

The helpful cor d'anglais chimes in again a third higher now, cuing for her to move on with her request now that she has Samson's attention.

Dis-moi qu'à Dalila....................... Tell me that to Dalila
tu reviens pour jamais................ you've returned for always.
Redis à ma tendresse.................. Reaffirm, to my tenderness,
Les serments d'autrefois,........... the vow you once made,
ces serments que j'aimais!......... the vow that I loved!

The rumbling orchestral swells accentuate Dalila's magically self-enriching voice. Past romance has nothing on what lays in the future she forecasts - a glittering romantic bliss telegraphed by her enticing diminuendo (listen to how that G natural on 'j'aimais' fades into reverie) that seems to suspend in mid air Samson's ability to breathe.

Ah! réponds à ma tendresse!..... Ah! Respond to my tenderness!
Verse-moi, verse-moi l'ivresse!... Pour into me sweet intoxication!

Treated to Dalila's long and lustrously colored descending lines of gorgeously sultry voice, Samson's heart palpitates to the arpeggio strokes of the harp's and the pizzicato (plucked) strings. His flushed brain can only manage to catch some air from the woodwinds-facilitated gasp following Dalila's refrains. Any thought of leaving her has escaped from his head and the solo clarinet confirms the only thought in his mind as Samson can only manage a feeble...

Dalila. Je t'aime! ................ Dalila, I love you!

The orchestral atmosphere has grown lusher with added sparks from the flute's repeated descending chromatic flashes.

Ainsi qu'on voit des blés ..... As the wheat in the field
les épis onduler.................. its blades undulate
sous la brise légère............. with the light breeze,

The colorful woodwinds are turning Dalila's chamber into something of a hallucination chamber! There is a storm brewing out side (can you hear that rhythmic orchestral swelling and ebbing in the background?).

Ainsi frémit mon coeur,....... and so my heart trembles,
prêt à se consoler,............... longing to be consoled
à ta voix qui m'est chère!.... by the voice that I love!

La flèche est moins rapide.... The arrow is less quick
à porter le trépas,..................at delivering death
que ne l'est ton amante......... than for your lover
à voler dans tes bras!............. to run into your arms!

Wattage overload....

Ah! Réponds à ma tendresse!... Ah! Respond to my tenderness!
Verse-moi, verse-moi l'ivresse!.. Pour into me sweet intoxication!

Samson is done for... Flooded into submission. His capitulation turns the final part of the aria into a duet..

Par mes baisers je veux sécher tes larmes ... By my kisses I wish to dry away your tears.
et de ton coeurs éloigner les alarmes! ... and, from your heart, erase all alarm!

Even the harp is dancing with the timpani in the background now. I don't care what is happening on the stage, but going with the music, the end of this thing is dangerously close to being x-rated! Sung really well, you'd be hard pressed to find a more sensual piece of music than this aria from Camille Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalila.

Olga Borodina, the singer in the sample clip, is considered by many opera fans as the gold standard for the role of Dalila today... for good reasons! What a voice, ay? Lushly rich and and full velvety dark red... from top to bottom. It is as flawless a piece of singing as you can ask for - a perfect union of voice and notes.

Now humor me and have another one or two listen to Borodina's fantastically sung Dalila, and pay attention to what the orchestral instruments are doing. Then have a listen to another Dalila here, sung by one Vesselina Kasarova. I'm not asking you to compare them and see who is 'better', though I'll be interested to hear what you think is different about their approach to the scene. I should note that the first clip (Borodina) is from a live staged performance of the opera (in live performance one would expect dramatic commitment and not technical perfection since there is no such thing as re-take and sound engineering) and the 2nd clip here is from a studio recording (the aria was recorded in fragments and then spliced together in the sound booth... so one would expect cleanliness but perhaps not theatrical commitment since it's pretty darn hard to project continued drama when one isn't singing the whole scene in one go).

For the record... I love both recordings to death... though I listen to the latter a lot more often just because I'm a drama junkie. Other music fans often ask me why I favor Vesselina Kasarova so much... Well, can you hear the difference between these two renditions? Borodina has the more gorgeous and lush voice of the two... by quite a margin (though Kasarova's voice is no light weight in that category herself). And it is an amazingly beautifully blended voice. She can just flood you with her intoxicatingly lush sound and you'd be sitting there looking like a dunce with your mouth wide open and drooling ungracefully all over your keyboard by the end of a voice-friendly aria like this... Though there is this aloofness in the singing... as if the singer, being quite well aware of her well endowed assets, is just as entranced by her own sound as you are. She is beyond confident that no one can resist her... and, by Jove, who could? It's something of a two-edged sword... That aloofness can be as enticing (what man isn't at least a bit intrigued by a very pretty woman who doesn't seem to need or want his attention?) as it can be off-putting (the intrigue gets old after a while and one soon loses interest). One gets a feeling that this Dalila wants to be worshiped rather than to be loved... She's a goddess some (like timid me) may not dare to pursue.

Kasarova's chocolaty dark (with that layer of chesty fuzz around her tones) voice, on the other hand, won't immediately win over many listeners just by itself, but it is a much more actively expressive instrument. It isn't an idealic vision of love that she conjures up in your head with the way she accents and shapes her phrases, the way she deploys that titillating warm vocal vibrato and those chest notes, but something quite more blush-inducingly earthly. This isn't a Dalila who is used to having things effortlessly come her way, but who is a more hand-on manipulator. She knows what she wants, and how to get it. And when she senses victory, even allows herself to turn back down on those chest notes a bit to enjoy her conquest. A real flesh and blood woman with real needs and insecurities (and who allows you a good glimpse at them in the course of the aria) that the common listeners without a perfect voice in their own throat can relate to... and therefore can care for even though she isn't exactly a saint. Actually....she doesn't even sound like she is singing... At least not as if she is bound to set series of notes that she has to hit and finish. It isn't that La Kasarova has overshadowed Camille Saint-Saëns and what he wanted to say, but that what the composer felt as he committed the notes of the song to paper in his attempt to describe it was precisely what this artist is realizing with her tones.

So... on days when I just want to sit back in my chair and listen to a splendidly sung Dalila, it is Olga Borodina who enchants my stereo. On days when I feel like having a visitation from Dalila, though, Vesselina Kasarova takes command of that little electronic gadget and doesn't allow me to even look or think at anything else but what is coming out of her mouth. I am forever grateful to live in the era where I can enjoy both wonderful artists as much as I'd like via their recordings (would love to catch them live a lot more often but San Diego isn't exactly an opera Mecca compared to Europe). It is too bad that Saint Saëns himself couldn't be around today to hear his music realized by these two ladies and some of their other colleagues! What a way to live up one's creative immortality!

Vesselina Kasarova recorded the aria on her RCA Red Seal CD 'Vesselina Kasarova: Passionate Arias' (click here to glimpse the recording process). Olga Borodina recorded the aria on her Philips CD 'Olga Borodina: Arias'. She is also Dalila on the Elektra/Wea CD set of the opera with Sir Colin Davis and Jose Cura, and on the Deutsche Grammophon DVD with James Levine and Placido Domingo.