Together with these vaulting passages have come marvelously tailored details.

The answer to that impulse in the last century would have been the appearance of new works.

Opera lovers today are not favored in that way (except for a handful of recent bequests by Berg and Britten) and must look elsewherenearly always with inventive compromisefor the routine-breaker.

Fresh intellectual interest, a startling discovery of up-till-now uncharted musico-dramatic trends No.

Samson, depending for success on the presence of two vocally phenomenal and (in the cast of the lady) physically glamorous stars, belongs in the attractive, post-Romantic category that includes such other periodic visitors as Manon Lescaut, Louise, and LAmore dei Tre Re; works which, when cast with first-rate singing actors, can bring much pleasure.

These two composers, one domestic, the other imported, but both in the mainstream of French musical life, were to launch an art form that would flourish for almost forty years, culminating gloriously in Les Huguenots of Meyerbeer, Les Troyens of Berlioz, and Verdis Don Carlos, created for Paris and sung originally to a French text.

With the advent of Gounod and Bizet, and the stylistic unfolding of Massenet, another, more intimate genrelyric dramacame into its own, taking over popular favor.

Even so, a few grand operassolitary and impressivewere still to make their mark in the closing quarter of the century.

Yet what has assured the longevity of Samson is not so much its grand scale as the intensely glowing sound, the gorgeous writing for the two principal voices: deep contralto with vibrant top (a rare commodity) and dramatic tenor.

The hard-to-find contralto with soaring high B flat has yielded in our time to the less rarified mezzo, but the spell of the music to be sung by either lady persists.

DeMille in his Hollywood epics), Samson began on a tortuous road.

Problems of production and of casting made the way especially difficult.

The composer, in coping with this situation, perhaps tried to cover too many angles.

What came off in his time as a clever compromise between the sexual and the sacramental too often suffers in our own from stylistic inconsistency.

Cheek-by-jowl with an ascetic opening for chorus (the Hebrews lament), elevated sentiments for Samson and dignified hostility by the Philistine High Priest, there flourishes a frankly lascivious Delilah.

In the operas early days one way of downplaying this erotic imbalance was to offer the work as a concert piece, which happened first on the Continent, then later in the United States and England.

Not until a couple of decades later (opening night of the 1915-16 season) did this opera revisit the same theater with a duo that would establish it as a favorite for many years: Enrico Caruso and Margaret Matzenauer.

In the excitement, memories of some eloquent performances in New York at Oscar Hammersteins Manhattan Opera House during the seasons of 1908 and 1909 tended to be forgotten.) From then on the score became a frequentif not constantvisitor to the major opera houses of this country.

Since the days of Caruso and Charles Dalmors, Hammersteins protagonist, almost every great dramatic tenor in this country has sung Samson.

The darker-voiced Delilahs (the genre for whom Saint-Sans created the part) have included Jeanne Gerville-Rache, Louise Homer, and Karin Branzell.

More recently, higher mezzos singing the role with success have included Ris Stevens, Rita Gorr, Grace Bumbry, Elena Obraztsova, Shirley Verrett, and Marilyn Horne.

Once the statuesque choral laments at the start are out of the way, the work maintains a notable command of pacing.

Closely linked to this asset is the operas overall sense of intensity: unflagging, commanding, eloquent.

And the twin goals of sonic and architectural authority have been skillfully achieved.

Many are the examples of Saint-Sanss phenomenal command of long melodic line and dynamic flux.

Opera Samson And Delilah