In 1985, Leonard Bernstein recorded a new version of his music from West Side Story with a studio cast that included opera singers Kiri Te Kanawa and José Carreras. It was odd casting to be sure, given that the show was about the forbidden love between a Hispanic and a non-Hispanic, and that Carreras was playing the non-Hispanic! Every time his Spanish accent came through in his singing, the recording didn't seem to make any sense.
Nevertheless, the album was a crossover hit, selling to both classical and pop fans, and it led inevitably to this 1986 follow-up, in which Te Kanawa and Carreras are again teamed, this time as Nellie Forbush and Emile de Becque of South Pacific. That means that New Zealander Te Kanawa is supposed to be from Arkansas, while Carreras is supposed to be French. The singers' ranges are more of a stretch. Nellie was written for alto Mary Martin, Emile for bass-baritone Ezio Pinza; Te Kanawa is a soprano, Carreras a tenor. While Robert Russell Bennett's original orchestrations have been retained, therefore, conductor Jonathan Tunick has had to do an awful lot of transposing. Beyond the two leads, the casting continues to be unusual. Jazz singer Sarah Vaughan is Bloody Mary and Mandy Patinkin, a Broadway star, is Lt. Cable.
The opera singers, the jazz singer, and the Broadway star sound like they are on three different records. Te Kanawa makes some attempt to give her performances the soubrette-like perkiness of Mary Martin, though Carreras just takes his usual approach. Vaughan, as is her wont, improvises on the melodies and phrasing in a way that may please jazz fans but doesn't do much for comprehension of the lyrics. Only Patinkin impresses, giving a typically passionate performance that won him a solo recording contract from CBS. In his liner notes, Theodore S. Chapin acknowledges that this recording isn't what Rodgers & Hammerstein had in mind in 1949 and advises listeners to "try to put the original cast album out of your mind." That's good advice, since a comparison to the first recording of South Pacific would only show up how confused and unsuccessful this one is.
© William Ruhlmann /TiVo