Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific (The New Broadway Cast)

An acquaintance of mine (friend of friends)plays Bloody Mary so I am predisposed to like it. But I was not disappointed in any aspect. I loved the original and loved the movie and I love this. I hope I can get to see it in a year or two. Also, the backdrop for the first half of the movie was the view from my condo in Kane`ohe, Hawai`i, for eight years, so when I want to be reminded of South Pacific, I just look at the mural on our wall in Oregon. Good luck Loretta. Keep on belting. Aloha.

this is an excellent new production (audio-wise) of an old favorite. I especially loved the voice of the singer who played Emil. He was very romantic (as he should be) and his voice has a beautiful sound. Nellie was quite good too, but her voice was just a little harsh for my taste. Not the softness and urgency and compassion of Mary Martin. But nevertheless, quite good. The only major weakness for me was Joe Cable. His voice was very weak and could not handle the range of the songs he sang. Still, it is definitely an entertaining and high-level recording and I would recommend it for anyone who is also a fan of "South Pacific". It won't replace the original, but it is a nice addition.

If you get a chance to see it live, do so. The chemistry among the cast is powerful, and the voices are superb. A classic musical, with a real story, and songs that advance the show. But cast recordings, usually recorded in a studio, cannot recreate the live experience. It can serve only as a reminder of the performance. It is possible to enjoy the structure (reprises, opening song repated at the close) which is lacking in many new musicals. Still enjoyable, if not the best (I loved the TV version with Reba McEntire).

I've been listening to this recording with great pleasure for the last two months, and yesterday I decided to return to the original 1949 recording to see how the two compared.

It was a bit of a shock, because I used to enjoy listening to the old recording. Yes, it sounds like they were all singing through a wind tunnel, but I can put up with outdated technology if the performances are worth it. But after listening to the 2008 recording, it's going to be hard to go back.

The biggest difference between the two is in something that is rarely discussed in Broadway cast recordings--the conducting. Salvatore dell'Isola, on the 1949 disc, plods through Rodgers' glorious score like he is doing homework. His heavy, dreary, monotonously regular beat weighs down the music like a barnacle. This is most noticeable in "I'm in Love With a Wonderful Guy." The music is a waltz, and dell'Isola takes it like a clodhopper with a metronome--bump ditty bump ditty bump ditty bump.

Luckily, the 2008 revival has Ted Sperling leading the orchestra (which was expanded for the recording with additional violins). His conducting is much lighter and more graceful than dell'Isola's, and he is more sensitive to the different moods of the music. It makes me wonder how other famous musicals would sound with better conductors. The difference is major; I'll never overlook musical direction in a musical again.

Another argument for this being the standard recording is the much greater amount of music (and some important snippets of dialog) it contains. In some cases the inclusion of reprises can be gratuitous, a sop to modern audiences who expect more bytes for their dollar. But in others the extra music really contributes to the feeling that you're getting the show in miniature audible form. On this disc, that is accomplished by the inclusion of Nellie's and Emil's duets. (Actually, they are not duets, which are songs sung by two people at the same time; instead, they alternate singing lines. That's because Mary Martin was afraid of singing with Ezio Pinza, who had a much bigger voice.) We hear the full arc of their relationship, from the tentative coming together to joyous acknowledgement of their love to shock and separation, to lonely longing and finally, to reconciliation. Other reprises let us hear Cable's abandonment of Liat, the lure of Bali H'ai for the Seabees (in a reprise of the song sung by the female chorus, in French), and the American military embarking on Operation Alligator. And on the OCR, Pinza inexplicably omitted two lines in "This Nearly Was Mine"--one of the grandest and most moving songs in all of musical theater.

(Here I should add that those fanatics who won't be happy unless they possess every scrap of sound recorded should check out Barnes & Noble, which offers a special edition of this recording with a couple of extra minutes of music.) As for the performances, that will probably be a matter of taste. Personally I find Kelli O'Hara more expressive than Mary Martin, even if her acting sometimes sounds calculated, and Paulo Szot sounds younger and sexier than Pinza (well, he is 20 years younger). However, William Tabbert on the OCR had a much sturdier tenor than Matthew Morrison, whose voice sounds thin and who has trouble with the high notes in "Younger Than Springtime," even though it appears that amplification or something similar was used to help him there. And while it's true that Juanita Hall also had a bigger voice than Loretta Ables Sayre, I enjoy Sayre's interpretation as much as Hall's.

Ultimately, it all comes down to the vastly superior conducting. This is a South Pacific for the ages.

I didn't want the show to end when I saw it. And now, with the disc it doesn't have to. I thoroughly enjoy listening to this faithful reproduction of the music and the messages it contains.