The musico -dramatic evolution of Rodgers and Hammerstein's 'South Pacific'.

摘要

Since its opening it 1949, Rodgers and Hammerstein's Pulitzer Prize-winning musical South Pacific has been regarded as a masterpiece of the genre. Frequently revived, filmed for commercial release in 1958, and filmed again for television in 2000, it has reached audiences in the millions. It is based on selected stories from James A. Michener's book, Tales of the South Pacific, also a Pulitzer Prize winner; the plots of these stories, and the musical, explore racial intolerance, a theme whose treatment underwent changes during the musical's evolution.;This study concerns the musico-dramatic evolution of South Pacific . This previously unexplored process reveals not only the creative activities of two masters at the peak of their form; it also demonstrates the authors' softening of the show's thematic material. The structural changes, observable through sketches found in the papers of Rodgers and Hammerstein, show how the team developed their characterizations through musical styles, changes in which often indicate changes in characters' psychological states; they also reveal changing approaches to the musicalization of the novel. Studying these changes provides an intimate and, occasionally, unprecedented look at Rodgers and Hammerstein's creative methods.;Early versions of the script further suggest an occasionally abrasive polemic that is modified in the final version. Changes in characters' expressions of intolerance, for instance, or in their criticism of racism in American society, demonstrate a tempering of the theme. While some sketches indicate striking similarities to aggressive writings about intolerance by the Writers' War Board, of which Hammerstein was an active member, final versions of the same scenes are more restrained. This study provides thorough analysis of these alterations.;Changes in the structural and thematic materials of South Pacific are examined within the context of the postwar era, a time in which attitudes towards race and women, two issues important to the musical, were being transformed by an intensifying Cold War. These changes suggest a heightened awareness of the needs of the musical, as well as of the problematic tenor of the times in which it was created, and they resulted in one of the great works for the American musical stage.