Search - George Frideric Handel, Harry Christophers, Lynda Russell, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Mark Padmore, Thomas Randle Lynne Dawson :: Handel - Samson / Dawson · L. Russell · Wyn-Rogers · Padmore · Randle · Matthew Vine · Jonathan Best · Michael George · The Sixteen · Christophers

Samson is, along with Semele, the only Handel oratorio to have gotten a toe-hold in the modern operatic repertory. The seduction-and-destruction story of Samson and Delilah is certainly dramatic; the libretto is better than many Handel had to work with. How odd that it took until 1997 for Samson to get a period-instrument recording--fortunately, Harry Christophers's account was worth the wait, energetic and musical enough to hold attention throughout the oratorio's three and a half hours. Among the soloists, soprano Lynda Russell tames her sometimes-unruly vibrato to make a truly alluring Delilah, Thomas Randle is a brawny Samson, and Lynne Dawson is delightful as the Israelitish Woman and Philistine Woman, giving a gleaming performance of Samson's most famous aria, "Let the Bright Seraphim." --Matthew Westphal