A studio recording featuring a combination of opera singers Kiri Te Kanawa, Jose Carreras, jazz singers (Sarah Vaughan), and Broadway singers (Mandy Patinkin), with The London Symphony Orchestra, directed by Jonathan Tunick. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi The original soundtrack recording of the film #South Pacific, released by RCA Victor Records in 1958, entered the public domain on January 1, 2009, in Europe, where a 50-year copyright limit on recordings prevails, and the ASWAS imprint of Delta Leisure Group, Plc., lost no time in issuing its own unlicensed version of the album. It's a no-frills budget release mastered from a record, but it boasts the entire 16 tracks from the RCA album, plus six extra performances of songs from #South Pacific by the likes of Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and Peggy Lee, which makes it considerably longer than the legitimate version. #South Pacific was a movie in which much of the principal cast had its singing voices dubbed, and that leads to a certain confusion in the credits here. The performer credits on the back of the album actually are correct with regard to who's really singing: Giorgio Tozzi sings the part of Emile de Becque (Some Enchanted Evening, This Nearly Was Mine), even if the album cover shows the actor Rossano Brazzi with Mitzi Gaynor in his arms (Gaynor does her own singing as Nellie Forbush); Bill Lee sings Lt. Cable (Younger Than Springtime, Carefully Taught), although the actor John Kerr's name appears on the front cover; Muriel Smith sings Bloody Mary (Bali Ha'i, Happy Talk), with no acknowledgement at all that Juanita Hall played the part onscreen; and Dites-Moi is sung by Marie Greene and Betty Wand, with no mention of Candace Lee and Warren Hsieh, who played de Becque's children in the movie. (France Nuyen, whose name also appears on the front cover, had the non-singing role of Liat!) The original soundtrack of South Pacific is not as impressive a recording as the Original Broadway Cast album, but it's a good rendering of the score, and this version, if unauthorized, gives good value for a modest price, at least in Europe. (Legally, it isn't supposed to be on sale in the U.S.) ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi