In my 72 years as a music lover, never have I heard the equal of Ezio Pinza. One has to fight back tears at hearing such musical perfection -- where the voice, lyrics, and music are too exquisite for words.
And I just checked. He won the Tony Award for South Pacific. This is from that. Your grandpa knocked it out of the park. The audience was gobsmacked, as was I.
I'll be 88 years old in January and I've heard many versions of this song and I never heard anyone sing it as well as your grandfather, you have every reason to be proud, he was the best
Some Enchanted Evening sung by Ezio Pinza, in my opinion, is the best love song I have ever heard. The first time I heard it was in 1950 and it caused me to fly to the South Pacific and visit Tahiti, Moorea, and Bora Bora for a month. The full moon light sail on a catamarane out of Bora Bora was out of this world. Jarvis H. Renfrow, Sr.
Still get goosebumps listening to this. What an incredible voice. What an incredible song. Sung by a man with genuine talent and class, and written by men of genius who were-with South Pacific- years ahead of their time despite the second world war setting. This is the standard for this song- every other performer till the end of time will be compared to Pinza's stunning version- and they will invariably come up short. Oh that we had such talent today. Sigh. -Thanks for this -Bill
This is one of my first memories of Pinza. I still have this LP album from 1957 when I was a kid, and I think he was the best basso ever IMO. The great opera critic Conrad L Osborne compared Pinza's voice to "a diamond wrapped in velvet". I can't think of a better comparison. Simply marvelous.
In Mary Martin's auto-bio, she recalled "that great ORGAN of a voice". I think the finest organs in unison, with all the stops pulled, would PALE, compared to Pinza's supernaturally grand sound!
I am always gobsmacked at the way Pinza floats that last pianissimo. No Broadway show used microphones back then so everyone had to have trained pipes even for a Broadway sized theater. And Pinza had already sung 587 performances, filling the Old Met since 1926. We are lucky that some of those performances were broadcast and can be heard in full.
He is the finest bass of all time. It is difficult to imagine a voice that deep, that basso profundo, that can display such warmth, musicality and restraint when needed. He was the first and best Emile, the rarest of musical treasures.
This was one of my father’s favorit songs. He bought“South Pacific” when visiting NY. I was very young then but enjoyed listening my father singing This song, although I could not understand the lirics. I am Peruvian and live in Peru!
The most beautiful love song in musical theater history from one of the best voices ever! I have been listening to Rodgers and Hammer stein for as long as i can remember and South Pacific is their best score in my opinion.
Pinza made this recording when he was well past his vocal prime. I may be going out on a limb, but having heard basses from all over the world and for many years including Pinza in his prime, I believe that, all around and considering the many variables that make up the human voice, Pinza might very well have been the finest bass of the 20th century
As a teen my mother saw the original production on Broadway in NY and bought the soundtrack that weighed about 15 lbs. And as her daughter, it was the first music I remember hearing.
I just performed this song on Saturday and Sunday. I did the best I could, but nobody can touch Pinza. You know he couldn't read music? He WAS music. Very humbling.
This song could be ten or ten thousand years old and still not lose it's beauty, strength and grasp on the wonderous opportunity fate plays in romance and love. Pinza will be enjoyed as long as people can hear and fall in love.
Pinza's rendition of this goes right through me. I'm in tears. He must have brought down the house. I believe both he and Mary Martin won Tonys for this, as they should have.
First heard this song when I was 4 years old, and it has always been my favorite song.. and in 1979, I met a young man that actually made it come true. It was almost like he always knew me.. It was across a crowded room, and although he didn't FLY to my side, he walked across the room, And he is still the love of my life. 💞
How wonderful to listen to this recording. Time has not eroded the impact of this song or the power of Ezio Pinza's superb delivery. Thank you for posting.
I can only agree that no one else could have sung it more beautifully. Thee emotion, the timbre and ....the accent above all. Tozzi does wonderfully but this rendition is what Rogers and Hammerstein absolutely needed.
I have this same LP album. I got it in 1957, and Ezio Pinza is my favorite basso since I first heard him when I was a child. A marvelous singer, and the best Emile DeBecque.
No fear of commitment in those lyrics, or that voice! Too bad more people can't learn from this beautiful song. I found my true love and never let her go. Thanks for posting.
The opening night audiences must have been blown away by the sheer power of his magnificent voice. I was only 10 when show opened it had same aura across the country as Oklahoma and Hamilton.
"The standard by which all others will always be measured"--and even this seems an understatement the song is presented so absolutely perfectly. Few performances anywhere have ever risen to this level.
Thank you so much for posting this! It was my mom's favorite song, and brought back so many happy memories for me. What a delight to the ears, and to the heart!
@thephantom1946 Magnificent is the right word. One of the reasons I hope parents and/or the schools give kids a chance to hear truly great music, by people of real and lasting talent. and that includes not only the classics, but Gershwin, Rogers, Hammerstein, Romberg, et al. Kids can learn to appreciate genuine class. Thanks for your note. -Bill
I hadn't listened to Pinza's in a while, but wow, completely different league, even better than I remembered. Siepi doesn't hold a candle to this. This LP has a much warmer sound than the CD version I have, which makes for even better listening.
The absolute best and definitive version of this "South Pacific" classic that never loses its freshness, its passion and intensity, for all its simplicity, it's still a wonderful song and always will be... Thank you very much for this most delightful upload...
My parents had this record in their collection and since my childhood this has sung in my dreams. How many of us have sung this and once we got to the ending instead of sounding as beautiful as Pinza positively mutilated it? Not easy to hit those last notes.
Licia Albanese called him ' the Caruso of Basses' which he certainly was! The incomparable basso cantante tone, musicality, charm, and appearance all combined magnificently.
I'm new to this site, and as an old geezer who can remember when LP's first appeared truly enjoy hearing these great stars once again. I saw the road company of South Pacific perform in Chicago in 1961, and recall having to explain to my 16 year old date what a "bastard" was....after Bloody Mary got such a big laugh. Pinza was fantastic in Opera. He had a truly fantastic voice and range. Check out his recording of "Le Cor"!!
I think vocally, the most difficult part of this is rising to the final top note piano 2:50-3:03. That is real mastery, and he does it effortlessly. But of course his surprise appearance on stage in this final scene must have brought the house down, and been the perfect intro for the song. Great theatre.
I have to think that Pinza made far more of this song than Rodgers could have hoped. I have heard him do a higher note at the finish - the most difficult part vocally.
This performance is art, a creative lie that enables us to perceive the truth. That is the highest compliment I can give. Very rare. The sentiment expressed in the song, especially as sung by Ezio, aims at the ideal (probably a lie), but the song persuades us that we should seek that lofty dream, nervertheless. Art sometimes appears unexpectedly. Sometimes from unexpected sources. Another case in point, "Haunted Heart", sung by Jo Stafford, as arranged by her husband. Available on youtube.
+Edward Burns to Sovek and Edward B: plse add a 3rd couple that met across a crowded room. Unlike Emile and Mitzi Gaynor, though, we did break up once. But that only served to drive home Mr. Hammerstein's wise advice: Once you have found her, never let her go ..."btw, Edward: ' ... art, a creative lie that enables us to perceive the truth." Can I borrow that? With attribution, of course.
When Pinza and Mary Martin met with Richard Rodgers about the musical South Pacific, they went to the piano with the sheet music to run through some of the music. Pinza was embarrassed to admit that he could not read music, he sang everything by ear - he had to listen to the music first. Once hearing it he could sing it perfectly.
Whoa, solid performance Every time I hear this song I remember performing it back in school with corn starch in my hair to make me look more mature… It moves me still
An archetypal voice. I saw the movie in seventh grade and have heard many versions of the songs. I still tip the hat to the great Bill Lee, as the actual voice of Lt. Cable in the film, singing Younger Than Springtime. But the power and tenderness of Ezio Pinza in the love-song-to-end-all-love-songs adds another dimension to the realm of singing--and the realm of love.
I've listened to several versions of the song, including Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Giorgio Tozzi, and more. I think Pinza's rich voice and delivery lifts his rendition above others, although I do like Como's and Tozzi's as well.
I've seen and heard many sing this, including the most recent revival of South Pacific on Broadway, but nobody, and I mean no one can really do this as well as Pinza did. He is matchless as Emile DeBecque. I was spoiled.
Sadly, his voice was at its top prime before recording techniques had been perfected. Just as there are no "quality" recordings of Caruso, we are lucky to have this very good recording of Ezio Pinza, even if he was slightly past his prime. I only wish I had been alive to hear him back in the 1920s and 30s, when he had to have been at his peak of performance quality. I'll bet that was something to hear!
A man with a very similar voice - an opera fan - but famed as a professional wrestler (!), was the great Antonino Rocca - believe that or not! The legendary Maestro, Arturo Toscanini, was a friend of his - and a wrestling fan!
Just watched South Pacific on PBS--the singing was great but sadly I kept hearing Ezio in part of my brain--the danger of being old and growing old with that sound, that flawless phrasing, that effortless quality of vocal production.
In my 72 years as a music lover, never have I heard the equal of Ezio Pinza. One has to fight back tears at hearing such musical perfection -- where the voice, lyrics, and music are too exquisite for words.
My exact feeling, whenever hearing Pinza's indescribably magnificent voice.
@jett woodward Have you heard Boris Christoff?
@jett woodward I don’t believe he ever did. He was strictly grand opera.
Listen to Siepi s version. It s much better
Brings back memories of listening as a little girl to the “record” with my parents - long gone now.
Yes the best ever. And I am proud to say that he was my grandfather! Bravo maestro Pinza.
Wait,that someone famous is your grandpa? No way! That's awesome!
And I just checked. He won the Tony Award for South Pacific. This is from that. Your grandpa knocked it out of the park. The audience was gobsmacked, as was I.
I'll be 88 years old in January and I've heard many versions of this song and I never heard anyone sing it as well as your grandfather, you have every reason to be proud, he was the best
I first heard this song on the radio in New York City in 1949. I was 4 years old and I
have never forgotten it.
I used to play and sing this to my late wife. Ezio Pinza said it all so beautifilly. Never let her go. I never will.
Some Enchanted Evening sung by Ezio Pinza, in my opinion, is the best love song I have ever heard. The first time I heard it was in 1950 and it caused me to fly to the South Pacific and visit Tahiti, Moorea, and Bora Bora for a month. The full moon light sail on a catamarane out of Bora Bora was out of this world. Jarvis H. Renfrow, Sr.
Still get goosebumps listening to this. What an incredible voice. What an incredible song. Sung by a man with genuine talent and class, and written by men of genius who were-with South Pacific- years ahead of their time despite the second world war setting.
This is the standard for this song- every other performer till the end of time will be compared to Pinza's stunning version- and they will invariably come up short.
Oh that we had such talent today. Sigh.
-Thanks for this
-Bill
Absolute perfection. This version will never be topped.
It doesn't get any better than this.
Did Des O'Connor cover this track ?😀
Once you have heard Pinza sing this you can never hear anyone else - fact!
Word!
+cameronpaul I must agree!
+cameronpaul HE OWNS IT111
Jim Brennan
Even an old recording such as this cannot disguise the glory of his voice - surely one of the finest baritones of the 20th c.
Pinza is, indeed, wonderful! Also wonderful is Brian Stokes Mitchell In Concert From Carnegie Hall ~ he's sublime!
This is one of my first memories of Pinza. I still have this LP album from 1957 when I was a kid, and I think he was the best basso ever IMO. The great opera critic Conrad L Osborne compared Pinza's voice to "a diamond wrapped in velvet". I can't think of a better comparison. Simply marvelous.
In Mary Martin's auto-bio, she recalled "that great ORGAN of a voice".
I think the finest organs in unison, with all the stops pulled, would PALE, compared to Pinza's supernaturally grand sound!
I am always gobsmacked at the way Pinza floats that last pianissimo. No Broadway show used microphones back then so everyone had to have trained pipes even for a Broadway sized theater. And Pinza had already sung 587 performances, filling the Old Met since 1926. We are lucky that some of those performances were broadcast and can be heard in full.
Figaro48 For some reason, your comment makes me teary-eyed.
Though I wasn't around then, it was always a pleasure to hear Pinza's recorded broadcasts, each of which are a lesson in singing.
He is the finest bass of all time. It is difficult to imagine a voice that deep, that basso profundo, that can display such warmth, musicality and restraint when needed. He was the first and best Emile, the rarest of musical treasures.
Cesare Siepi ...
"Of all time"? You really heard every bass who ever sang? Somehow, I doubt it ...
This was one of my father’s favorit songs. He bought“South Pacific” when visiting NY. I was very young then but enjoyed listening my father singing This song, although I could not understand the lirics. I am Peruvian and live in Peru!
alsa a basso cantante
The most beautiful love song in musical theater history from one of the best voices ever! I have been listening to Rodgers and Hammer stein for as long as i can remember and South Pacific is their best score in my opinion.
Pinza made this recording when he was well past his vocal prime. I may be going out on a limb, but having heard basses from all over the world and for many years including Pinza in his prime, I believe that, all around and considering the many variables that make up the human voice, Pinza might very well have been the finest bass of the 20th century
As a teen my mother saw the original production on Broadway in NY and bought the soundtrack that weighed about 15 lbs. And as her daughter, it was the first music I remember hearing.
The shaping of that last phrase . . . right to the center of the heart. An old man's last, unexpected love.
absolutely magnificent ,ezio pinza is an absolute master
I just performed this song on Saturday and Sunday. I did the best I could, but nobody can touch Pinza. You know he couldn't read music? He WAS music. Very humbling.
It is one of the most romantic songs I've ever heard and gives me goosebumps.
The one and only Enzio. What a voice....... And what a taste !
Hans NL
This song could be ten or ten thousand years old and still not lose it's beauty, strength and grasp on the wonderous opportunity fate plays in romance and love. Pinza will be enjoyed as long as people can hear and fall in love.
Pinza's rendition of this goes right through me. I'm in tears. He must have brought down the house. I believe both he and Mary Martin won Tonys for this, as they should have.
First heard this song when I was 4 years old, and it has always been my favorite song.. and in 1979, I met a young man that actually made it come true. It was almost like he always knew me.. It was across a crowded room, and although he didn't FLY to my side, he walked across the room, And he is still the love of my life. 💞
Still the benchmark. No other version has ever come close to this. Fabulous.
Unforgettable. Ezio "owns" This Song!
How wonderful to listen to this recording. Time has not eroded the impact of this song or the power of Ezio Pinza's superb delivery. Thank you for posting.
I can only agree that no one else could have sung it more beautifully. Thee emotion, the timbre and ....the accent above all. Tozzi does wonderfully but this rendition is what Rogers and Hammerstein absolutely needed.
The most gorgeous basso voice singing one of the greatest love songs of all time. (Listen to Wilbur Evans, too -- he was pretty great)
I have this same LP album. I got it in 1957, and Ezio Pinza is my favorite basso since I first heard him when I was a child. A marvelous singer, and the best Emile DeBecque.
This magical recording seems to have kept romance alive for a good seventy years ; it does it every time.
Ezio Pinza was a magnificent singer. He is older here. Listen to him when
younger and it is even richer. He was the tops!
No one could possibly sing this the way Ezio Pinza does. Such feeling!
Thank you Mr. Pinza. You passed the audition.
No fear of commitment in those lyrics, or that voice! Too bad more people can't learn from this beautiful song. I found my true love and never let her go. Thanks for posting.
The opening night audiences must have been blown away by the sheer power of his magnificent voice. I was only 10 when show opened it had same aura across the country as Oklahoma and Hamilton.
what an enchanting song
Beautyful voice and song
"The standard by which all others will always be measured"--and even this seems an understatement the song is presented so absolutely perfectly. Few performances anywhere have ever risen to this level.
Bravo. I can still hear my father singing this.
Wonderful voice and performance.
There is one and only one Emile de Beque. And that is the original. The incomparable Ezio Pinza. Thank you for posting this.
One of the finest sounds ever recorded. Thank you.
absolutely everything is building up to the ultimate piansissmo and this is very hard to achieve (for the listener!!) such a graceful singer!
this songs warms my heart and the temptation version puts me in a daz...often listen on replay till i fall asleep ... the greatness of music
Thank you so much for posting this! It was my mom's favorite song, and brought back so many happy memories for me. What a delight to the ears, and to the heart!
Truly amazing. Especially that ending!
@thephantom1946 Magnificent is the right word. One of the reasons I hope parents and/or the schools give kids a chance to hear truly great music, by people of real and lasting talent. and that includes not only the classics, but Gershwin, Rogers, Hammerstein, Romberg, et al. Kids can learn to appreciate genuine class.
Thanks for your note.
-Bill
The absolute master of this song, and many others. Thank you.
I hadn't listened to Pinza's in a while, but wow, completely different league, even better than I remembered. Siepi doesn't hold a candle to this. This LP has a much warmer sound than the CD version I have, which makes for even better listening.
Absolutely The King of the Bassos!
The incomparable Pinza!
What a range! Always enjoyed this song.
The absolute best and definitive version of this "South Pacific" classic that never loses its freshness, its passion and intensity, for all its simplicity, it's still a wonderful song and always will be... Thank you very much for this most delightful upload...
No one has ever sung this better. The original 1949 production of South Pacific must have been truly fabulous.
Pinza is what singing on the breath is all about.
Wow! The best I've have ever heard.
My parents had this record in their collection and since my childhood this has sung in my dreams. How many of us have sung this and once we got to the ending instead of sounding as beautiful as Pinza positively mutilated it? Not easy to hit those last notes.
This is just amazing.
My Mom loved this song along with Billy Eckstine's music.
gives me literally chills. brings back my childhood, listening to the “ record” with my parents
Licia Albanese called him ' the Caruso of Basses' which he certainly was!
The incomparable basso cantante tone, musicality, charm, and appearance all combined magnificently.
Absolutely beautiful.
Why does opera sound so sad? I guess that's what it does, such a melancholy-sweet sound.
This may be the greatest recording ever made
Ezio Pinza passed away on this day in 1957 {May 9th}; just nine days before his 65th birthday...
May he R.I.P.
I'm new to this site, and as an old geezer who can remember when LP's first appeared truly enjoy hearing these great stars once again. I saw the road company of South Pacific perform in Chicago in 1961, and recall having to explain to my 16 year old date what a "bastard" was....after Bloody Mary got such a big laugh. Pinza was fantastic in Opera. He had a truly fantastic voice and range. Check out his recording of "Le Cor"!!
Thank you! My dear father sang this and his and Pinza's voice sound so similar. It's like hearing Dad again. :)
Loved it as a kid and still do
Takes me back to the good old days when life was a marvel. Oh, well.
It still is, despite the horrendous happenings that keep threatening its continuity.
We must all do whatever we can to "keep on keeping on".
Bravo, bravissimo!
Agreed nothing better than finding long forgotten 78s all beat up and discovering someone unknown
I think vocally, the most difficult part of this is rising to the final top note piano 2:50-3:03. That is real mastery, and he does it effortlessly. But of course his surprise appearance on stage in this final scene must have brought the house down, and been the perfect intro for the song. Great theatre.
My mother had this entire original cast recording on 78's. As I remember, there were 4 or 5 records.
I am getting the chills, listening to this. He is superb.
How could someone sound so great!
"Fools give you reasons; wise men never try ..." Nevermore, nevermore
He WAS Emile de Beque. Thank you, VTV!
I have to think that Pinza made far more of this song than Rodgers could have hoped. I have heard him do a higher note at the finish - the most difficult part vocally.
I tend to agree with1960sfjd that Pinza is probably the greatest of all bassos on an overall basis.
I am so grateful to you for posting this. It expresses some romances perfectly.
This performance is art, a creative lie that enables us to perceive the truth. That is the highest compliment I can give. Very rare. The sentiment expressed in the song, especially as sung by Ezio, aims at the ideal (probably a lie), but the song persuades us that we should seek that lofty dream, nervertheless.
Art sometimes appears unexpectedly. Sometimes from unexpected sources. Another case in point, "Haunted Heart", sung by Jo Stafford, as arranged by her husband. Available on youtube.
+Edward Burns I know two couples who met across a crowded room, with enduring marriages. I t happens.
+Edward Burns to Sovek and Edward B: plse add a 3rd couple that met across a crowded room. Unlike Emile and Mitzi Gaynor, though, we did break up once. But that only served to drive home Mr. Hammerstein's wise advice: Once you have found her, never let her go ..."btw, Edward: ' ... art, a creative lie that enables us to perceive the truth." Can I borrow that? With attribution, of course.
+Edward Burns
When Pinza and Mary Martin met with Richard Rodgers about the musical South Pacific, they went to the piano with the sheet music to run through some of the music. Pinza was embarrassed to admit that he could not read music, he sang everything by ear - he had to listen to the music first. Once hearing it he could sing it perfectly.
Whoa, solid performance
Every time I hear this song I remember performing it back in school with corn starch in my hair to make me look more mature…
It moves me still
On a scale of 1-5, he gets a 10! What a glorious
voice he had.
An archetypal voice. I saw the movie in seventh grade and have heard many versions of the songs. I still tip the hat to the great Bill Lee, as the actual voice of Lt. Cable in the film, singing Younger Than Springtime. But the power and tenderness of Ezio Pinza in the love-song-to-end-all-love-songs adds another dimension to the realm of singing--and the realm of love.
DIE SCHÖNSTE BASSSTIMME ALLER ZEITEN UND FASZINIERENDSTE GESTALT DES MUSIKALISCHEN GENERE ÜBERHAUPT
the original stage show wit Mary Martin & Ezio Pinza was recorded and made on LP phlips bbl 7157 this was the finest recording of the show ever
Thank you for this.
I've listened to several versions of the song, including Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Giorgio Tozzi, and more. I think Pinza's rich voice and delivery lifts his rendition above others, although I do like Como's and Tozzi's as well.
Pinza is just off the hook. Fantastic in every way!!!!
@artcuz1 So true, Pinza's is still the best I've ever heard and I've heard many over the decades, Szot included. Pinza is just superb!
a remarkable Musical about an important aspect of love it transcends race culture and every freaking thing else
I've seen and heard many sing this, including the most recent revival of South Pacific on Broadway, but nobody, and I mean no one can really do this as well as Pinza did. He is matchless as Emile DeBecque. I was spoiled.
Thanx so much for posting. :-))
Resident at my job put me on 😂 he sing this everyday
I cant listen to anyone else singing this lovely song...
Wonderful
All around, Pinza may have been the best bass of the 20th century
Sadly, his voice was at its top prime before recording techniques had been perfected. Just as there are no "quality" recordings of Caruso, we are lucky to have this very good recording of Ezio Pinza, even if he was slightly past his prime. I only wish I had been alive to hear him back in the 1920s and 30s, when he had to have been at his peak of performance quality. I'll bet that was something to hear!
One of best voices!
A man with a very similar voice - an opera fan - but famed as a professional wrestler (!), was the great Antonino Rocca - believe that or not!
The legendary Maestro, Arturo Toscanini, was a friend of his - and a wrestling fan!
The most romantic song!
Just watched South Pacific on PBS--the singing was great but sadly I kept hearing Ezio in part of my brain--the danger of being old and growing old with that sound, that flawless phrasing, that effortless quality of vocal production.
Supreme.