"Some Enchanted Evening" is a show tune from the 1949
Rodgers and Hammerstein musical
South Pacific.
In the show, it is sung as a solo by Emile de Becque, the
French plantation owner, who falls in love with the American
navy nurse Nellie Forbush. In this song he sings of seizing the
moment so that it won't slip away.
In the film version, the song is sung by Giorgio Tozzi, who
dubbed for Rossano Brazzi.
According to the running commentary on the DVD release of
South Pacific, this song provides an example of Hammerstein's
use of verbs in a song. The DVD commentary mentions that Lehman
Engel remembered how Oscar Hammerstein II wanted to write a
song that used verbs, but waited ten years to do so before he
wrote this song. The song is rich with verbs, such as "see",
"hear" and "find."
Besides recordings by Ezio Pinza (original cast album) and
Perry Como (biggest hit version), several other versions were
recorded; see below.