Recordings
Columbia Records recorded the overture and most of the songs from the original production in 1949, using members of the cast including Ezio Pinza and Mary Martin. Drawn from the original masters, Columbia released the album in both the new LP format and on 78-rpm discs. When Sony acquired Columbia, a CD was released from the previously unused magnetic tape recording from the same 1949 sessions in New York City. The CD includes the bonus tracks: "Loneliness of Evening" (recorded in 1949 by Mary Martin but not used in South Pacific; the piece was used and sung by the Prince in the second TV version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella); "My Girl Back Home" (recorded by Mary Martin); "Bali Ha'i" (cover version by Ezio Pinza); and Symphonic Scenario for Concert Orchestra (original orchestrations by Robert Russell Bennett). The film soundtrack was released on the RCA Victor label on March 19, 1958.
Masterworks Broadway released a recording of the 1967 Lincoln Center production starring Florence Henderson as Nellie, Giorgio Tozzi as Emile, David Doyle as Luther Billis, Justin McDonough as Lt. Cable, Lyle Talbot as Capt. Brackett and Irene Byatt as Bloody Mary.
In 1986 José Carreras and Kiri Te Kanawa made a studio recording of South Pacific, the sessions of which were filmed as a documentary, similar in style to Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story documentary a year earlier which featured the same stars. It also featured Sarah Vaughan as Bloody Mary and Mandy Patinkin as Lt. Cable.
The 2001 Royal National Theatre's revival cast album was recorded in 2002 on First Night Records with Philip Quast as Emile, Lauren Kennedy as Nellie, Edward Baker-Duly as Lt. Cable, Sheila Francisco as Bloody Mary and Nick Holder as Luther Billis. The album includes the cut song, "Now Is the Time".
The 2005 Carnegie Hall concert version was released on April 18, 2006 by Decca Broadway with Reba McEntire as Nellie, Brian Stokes Mitchell as Emile, Lillias White as Bloody Mary, Jason Danieley as Lt. Cable, and Alec Baldwin as Luther Billis, and includes most of the dialogue used in the live performance.
The 2008 Broadway revival cast album was released on May 27, 2008 by Masterworks Broadway.
Read more about this topic: South Pacific (musical)
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“All radio is dead. Which means that these tape recordings I’m making are for the sake of future history. If any.”
—Barré Lyndon (1896–1972)