Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific (The New Broadway Cast)
List Price:
Our Price: $7.27
You Save: $4.71 (39%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $5.67 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more new music releases
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Music CD Cover
Composer: Richard RodgersComposer: Oscar Hammerstein II
Performer: Kelli O'Hara
Performer: Paulo Szot
Performer: Matthew Morrison
Performer: Loretta Ables Sayre
Performer: Danny Burstein
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
Format: Cast Recording
CD Release Date: 2008-05-27
Music Label: SONY CLASSICS
Soundtracks:
- Overture
- Dites-Moi
- A Cockeyed Optimist
- Twin Soliloquies
- Some Enchanted Evening
- Bloody Mary
- There is Nothin' Like a Dame
- Bali Ha'i
- My Girl Back Home
- I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair
- Reprise: Some Enchanted Evening
- Wonderful Guy
- Reprise: Bali Ha'i
- Younger Than Springtime
- Reprise: a Wonderful Guy
- This is How It Feels
- Finale Act I
- Entr'acte
- Happy Talk
- Reprise: Younger Than Springtime
- Honey Bun
- You've Got To Be Carefully Taught
- This Nearly Was Mine
- Reprise: Some Enchanted Evening
- Reprise: Honey Bun
- Finale Ultimo
Free Music Notes for Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific (The New Broadway Cast)
Free Music Review: Triumphant cast recording
Hit: 5 Stars
Let's get one (very) relative cavil out of the way. If, in an ideal world, if I had a choice as to how a recording for such a show as this would be done, it'd be this. I'd have microphones set up at an ideal place between orchestra and stage. After the run was established, I'd record, say, two weeks worth of performances. Then, I'd have the artists, producers and recording engineers have a vote as to what the collectively, mutually-agreed upon best performance is of each given number. Allow some stage noises. The audience's reaction. The live, raw performance, with all its edge, tensions and artistic personalities all at the fore.
This is very much a studio affair. The microphoning, fairly close. The artists, of the studio, of a different mindset than in performance mode. Knowing this is for posterity. A bit more control, care involved. No audience to give to and respond off of. A slight tamping down of theatrical projection. Putting down something for forever must be a nerve-wracking premise. Therefore, the energy in this recording is painted in more subtle rather than bold strokes.
That said, this recording is an absolute triumph. I got carried away in the euphoria hearing the fresh accounts of the songs in this score. Laughing in delight at times, getting choked-up at others. This timeless show, so relevant today, hasn't dated or staled an iota. South Pacific captures the perfect American vernacular. These are our treasures, our American sentiments, our American dreams, our American expressions. Our American soul. (As an aside: I think the best account of this show I've ever read was in Shelley Winters's first autobio circa about 1980. She evokes the emotional, universal, post-war response to the show with a spot-on account. She relates how everyone acquired the records of the cast recording, and that they were played by everyone, all the time. Winters at the time was euphemistically "dating" Burt Lancaster, and she poignantly recounted how he reacted, tearfully, at the line "Most people live on a lonely island," which gave the impression of how he felt about himself as a person. That insight made me realize the deeper meaning, and it ended my view that "Bali Ha'i" was a sort of novelty song)
Who would ever have dreamed that we'd have this rightness of casting here, today, 60 years later. Maybe even more right in some ways now than then.
Here we have Paulo Szot, an Emile of one's dreams. The right age, voice, temperament, looks. Not younger than springtime, definitely younger than winter and autumn. Very much the summer is he, in his prime, not past it. Father of two very young children. A youngish, vital man. This is very much a baritone Emile, not Grandpapa Emile, not stately, not operatically grandiloquent, but human, thoughtful and romantic. His English, touched with the continental, is perfect. "Some Enchanted Evening" as warm, tender, thoughtfully phrased as one could wish. At first musing, contemplative, the song builds to a glorious climax, ending on a beautifully pensive note. His crowning moment comes in "This Nearly Was Mine." Inward, restrained, allowing the line to speak for itself; no overemoting, as I heard another, recent Emile do. No Emile I've ever heard makes the line 'close to my heart she came' so filled, as Szot achieves, with such a touchingly poignant sense of heartbreak. After the bridge, the return to the main melody is sung with even more quietly, its perfectly sustained, slender line of tone conveying a deeply pronounced loss and sadness. Szot allows his voice to quiver slightly at 'Now, now I'm alone,' and his concluding, 'Once, nearly was mine' to pour out with emotional fervor. You can deduce why Szot has won such a favorable response from audience and critics. I look very much forward to Szot's future work in opera; the MET, if it is smart, will not let him get away.
As Nellie, Kelli O'Hara is another winning casting coup. Blessed with a non-ingenue voice and manner, she brings a welcomely straightforward, easy spontaneity, as well as verve, to her music. Most notably, she avoids that all-purpose, dreadfully cheerful "spunk" (as Lou Grant says, "I HATE spunk") in her manner. O'Hara can Broadway-belt AND sing in an authentic soprano register. This is important. The belt is for the extrovert emotions of "I'm Gonna Was That Man Right Outta My Hair," and "A Wonderful Guy," and can hit the lows and highs very soundly, musically. Yet, when she has to sing the reprises of "Some Enchanted Evening," she can impart a soft, romantic timbre; particularly on track 24, she sings the verses with a most tender, wistful sense of longing, and she successfully utilizes a ballad-like singing tone. A very appealing portrayal, and O'Hara wins us over by her excellent tastes and instincts.
You may correctly assume that Matthew Morrison, as Joe Cable, does not have a "classically" trained voice, and I imagine he needs amplification. No matter; he sounds the part to a T - plausibly youthful. Morrison *really* sounds the young, bloom-of-youth marine. He has a very sweet tone, and uses it well, expressively. He doesn't bleat as some exponents of Cables do, nor does he sound confusingly sophisticated and professional as Bill Lee (excellent singer though he is), singing for John Kerr in the film soundtrack. "Younger than Springtime" is fresh, tender and romantically infatuated. But Morrison finds a new edge of realization, maturity and defiance in "Carefully Taught." Fittingly, he provides the right boyish contrast to the debonair, urbane, older Emile of Szot.
Loretta Ables Sayre is an impeccably right Bloody Mary. Right accent, right kind of strong, earthy, memorably "peasanty-islander"-evoked tone. Yet musical, characterful. "Bali H'ai" is alluringly sung, and "Happy Talk" is sprightly, but not overdone. Ables Sayre was a lucky find for this revival.
For all that is individual as these characterizations are, what makes these work with such dynamite success is how well they complement, yet *contrast* each other. Each character has its own voice, its own flavor and culture, and they collectively add up to a colorful series of vastly different personalities.
Then, too, the choral numbers have never sounded so lusty and roaring with life. They're having fun, and this is the kind of music to let it out.
We have here a very full representation of the show, a good one-third of it - clocking in at 65 minutes. The all-important reprises are included, as well as some dialogue, underpinned by the music. Very important, as it shows the evolution of the characters and story, with all its connective tissue. I always think that a show like this (and others) are akin to French Opera Comique, where there's songs, dialogue, and dialogue enhanced by music. The action brought forward by the dialogue, the song/music expressions of emotions.
The conductor, Ted Sperling, presides over the score with great love, precision and skill. I don't ever recall such a hand of such concise musical sensitivity applied to the score as here. The intros to numbers, and the dialogue underlinings stand out, and have an unusually emotional tug, and are all set up and delivered superbly well. "Bali H'ai," for example, is allowed its full mystical, harp-laden intro, and it gives it just that tantalizing, paradisiacal ambiance.
I salute all those involved in this peerless, joyful revival, which the public has turned into a hit show - again. Easy to see why. Besides its great music and moving story, and without needing any further elaboration, its themes are never more apt than they are now. I thank the collective efforts of all involved for fulfilling a "dream in my heart."
Niel Rishoi
Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific (The New Broadway Cast) Poster
The landmark musical's first-ever Broadway revival! The curtain rang down on Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific in 1954 after five years of extraordinary acclaim and countless awards including nine Tonys and a Pulitzer. Based on James Michener's Pulitzer Prize winning book Tales of the South Pacific, the musical is set on a tropical island during World War II and tells the sweeping romantic story of two couples - U.S. Navy nurse Nellie Forbush and French plantation owner Emile de Becque and Marine Joe Cable and a young local native girl Liat - and how their happiness is threatened by the realities of the war and by their own prejudices. Considered by many the finest musical ever written, the score's songs include such musical theater classics as "Some Enchanted Evening," "Younger Than Springtime," "Bali Ha'i," "There is Nothin' Like a Dame" and "A Wonderful Guy."Broadway & Vocalists Music CDs
Music Genres
Top music charts in Broadway & Vocalists Music CDs
George Shearing, Mel Torme - Elegant EveningSHEARING,G/TORME,M; Release date: 1990-10-25; Music CD
Best price: $7.11
Price in other shops:
Stan Getz - Spring Is HereRelease date: 1993-01-11; Music CD
Price in other shops:
Rosemary Clooney - Girl SingerRelease date: 1999-04-01; Music CD
Best price: $8.97
Price in other shops:
The Blenders - NogRelease date: 1998-10-20; Music CD
Best price: $9.73
Price in other shops:
Brave Combo, Tiny Tim - GirlTIM,TINY/BRAVE COMB; Release date: 1996-03-19; Music CD
Best price: $10.36
Price in other shops:
Belleville a Cappella Choir - Southern Journey, Vol. 11: Honor The Lamb - The Belleville A Cappella ChoirRelease date: 1998-02-10; Music CD
Best price: $83.93
Diane Schuur - Love SongsRelease date: 1993-05-11; Music CD
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
![Love Is the Thing [Vinyl] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
Nat King Cole - Love Is the Thing [Vinyl]Release date: 1996-11-19; Music CD
Best price: $169.99
Linda Ronstadt - Linda Ronstadt: Greatest HitsRelease date: 1998-01-13; Music CD
Price in other shops:
Buddy Rich, Sammy Davis Jr - Sounds of 66Release date: 1996-09-17; Music CD
Price in other shops:
Top Rated Albums
The Book of Mormon (Original Broadway Cast Recording)Release date: 2011-06-07; Music CD
Best price: $10.08
Price in other shops:
Disney's Beauty and the Beast: The Broadway Musical (Original Broadway Cast Recording)BEAUTY & THE BEAST; Release date: 1994-04-26; Music CD
Best price: $8.31
Price in other shops:
Billy Elliot: The Musical (Original Cast Recording)Release date: 2006-02-07; Music CD
Best price: $9.37
Price in other shops:
Memphis: A New Musical (Orginal Cast Recording)Release date: 2010-03-30; Music CD
Best price: $12.43
Price in other shops:
Follies (New Broadway Cast Recording)Release date: 2011-11-29; Music CD
Best price: $12.03
Price in other shops:
The Addams FamilyRelease date: 2010-06-08; Music CD
Best price: $10.57
Price in other shops:
Original 1956 Broadway Cast Recording - My Fair LadyRelease date: 2009-05-05; Music CD
Best price: $7.30
Price in other shops:
Anything Goes - Anything Goes / N.B.C.R.Release date: 2011-09-20; Music CD
Best price: $11.99
Price in other shops:
South Pacific (Collector's Edition)BRAZZI,ROSSANO; Release date: 2006-11-07; DVD
Best price: $9.93
Price in other shops:
South Pacific (1958 Film Soundtrack)Release date: 2000-10-24; Music CD
Best price: $5.71
Price in other shops: