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15 March 2017
Still the best quality sounding edition of one of the best original cast recordings ever
For a starter, South Pacific is a 10 star musical written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II (Oklahoma! Carousel, The King and I, and The Sound of Music) and this recording is a 5 star recording with Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza giving wonderful performances as the leads Nellie and Emilie. William Tabbert and Juanita Hall lend excellent support as Lt. Cable and Blood Mary and the ensemble is wonderful as well. While there are some cuts to the songs to fit them onto 78s (remember those?), it still doesn't stop it from being an essential recording in any musical theatre lover's collection.
For sound quality wise, I would go with the 1988 Columbia release (you can tell by the blue cover of Martin and Pinza as opposed to the green cover with Martin and Pinza's faces on each side of an anchor). The 1998 Sony release has bonus tracks, but it and the 1993 Sony release pale in comparison in sound quality to the 1988 Columbia release.