With Camille Saint-Saëns's SAMSON ET DALILA playing currently at The Met in a new production, there has been some discussion of what constitutes a "Dalila" voice. By turns seductive, cruel, and haughty, the character's music calls for both blazing power and sensual insinuation.
In the aria that concludes Act I, "Printemps qui commence", Maria Callas employs a spine-tingling mixture of dusky chest voice and persuasive lyricism to cast a spell over her former lover, hoping to lure him back into her arms. But her motives are not in fact romantic, and this too is gently revealed in the Callas interpretation: