South Pacific (Original 1949 Broadway Cast) Music

South Pacific (Original 1949 Broadway Cast) and other best sellers. Great prices on South Pacific (Original 1949 Broadway Cast) and other best selling Popular Music. To find additional Popular Music browse the Music categories, or use the search box at the top of this page.

by: Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein

See Larger Image


Customer Reviews
Average Rating: Rating: - Still the best recording of the show. 52 years after its debut this 1949 recording is still the best recording (exception being the film soundtrack) of the original stage show ever made. The extraordinary sound is remarkable when compared with other cast albums from Decca, RCA and Capitol of the same time period (Columbia was always state of the art sound wise and shows it here). The performances are fresh and it is both lilting and moving. Martin excels in HONEY BUN and Pinza does equally well in SOME ENCHANTED EVENING and THIS NEARLY WAS MINE. The male chorus does a great job with THERE IS NOTHING LIKE A DAME. While this was the second cast album released on LP (KISS ME KATE -also on Columbia - was the first) it was also geared for 78 rpm reproduction so no cut is over 3:35, the maximum a 78 side could hold, but nothing seems rushed. Indeed Columbia did the industry one better and released SP on 7 discs (14 sides) to the industry standard of either 6 10" discs or 5 12" discs - thus allowing us more music. Odd notes: The parenthesis for TWIN SOLILOQUES reads (WONDER HOW IT FEELS) but this is not the lyric. Nellie sings "Wonder How I'd Feel" - nowhere is the parenthesized second title in the orignal lyric. Although the song is presented as THERE IS NOTHIN' LIKE A DAME - listen to those guys - they enunciate "Nothing" dozens of times. The original album without the added filler came to 45:21 - generous by industry standards. With a wonderful show wonderfully sung, played and recorded, this is one of the classics of all original cast recordings. Rating: - Mary Martin is brilliant! This is Rodgers and Hammerstein at their best!! Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza are truly ecstatic. The OVERTURE and DITES-MOI are very pleasant. A COCKEYED OPTIMIST, A WONDERFUL GUY, I'M GONNA WASH THAT MAN RIGHT OUTTA MY HAIR, and HONEY BUN are all sung by Mary Martin; making them wonderful to listen to. William Tabbert renders YOUNGER THAN SPRINGTIME and the prejudicial YOU'VE GOT TO BE CAREFULLY TAUGHT. Ezio Pinza's SOME ENCHANTED EVENING and THIS NEARLY WAS MINE are very robustious and majestic. Even Juanita Hall sings well in BALI H'AI and HAPPY TALK. The chorale songs are THERE IS NOTHIN' LIKE A DAME and BLOODY MARY, which are quite rousing. The finale is pleasant, but the most familiar tune is the TWIN SOLILOQUIES, the only song that both Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza sung in. All-in-all, a 99 (due to some sound quality flaws) . Rating: - A plus Rodgers and Hammerstein's best musical, and by far the best recording it ever received, with newly remastered sound. Mary Martin has the perfect Broadway voice, and she is at the peak of her form in numbers like Wash that Man Right Out of My Hair and I'm in Love With a Wonderful Guy. Ezio Pinza, the great opera singer, sounds remarkably at home in this repertoire, and gives the definitive performance of perhaps the greatest song ever written for Broadway, Some Enchanted Evening. The music at times is almost symphonic in its inspiration, it is a lyrical masterpiece, and is provocative as well with the great diatribe against racial prejudice, You've Got to Be Carefully Taught. Not to detract from the movie version which is fine too, but this is THE definitive version.

South Pacific (Original 1949 Broadway Cast) Music

Related Music Searches