Frederick Loewe, Richard Harris, Alan Jay Lerner, Vanessa Redgrave - Camelot: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1967 Film) - Amazon.com Music
By albertatamazon on July 31, 1999
Format: Audio CD
I know this opinion may be controversial,but as far as I am concerned,this is the best recording of "Camelot" ever done. Although Richard Burton was a magnificent actor,his performance on the original cast LP was  too uninflected--he simply sang the songs and recited the lines. Julie Andrews is one of my favorite musical stars, but she came across on the album as full of sweetness and devoid of the sweeping romantic passion  Guenevere is supposed to have. Robert Goulet,on the other hand,was immensely successful with his songs.
In contrast, Richard Harris,on this CD (and NOT the mediocre 1980's revival),gives the performance of his life as King  Arthur,avoiding,under Joshua Logan's direction, the outrageous hamming of  the later stage revival. His Arthur is human,touching,and vulnerable,and Harris fills his songs with all sorts of voice inflections (he half-speaks,half-sings) that give the role true depth (those who want to see his entire performance should see the film - his acting is postively  Shakespearean). Vanessa Redgrave,with a small, but appealing and immensely  sexy singing voice, also brings out more of the character of Guenevere.  Gene Merlino, who dubbed Franco Nero's Lancelot, is just OK with the songs, but even his "acting" is good. The sumptuous orchestrations are far more imposing than Robert Russell Bennett and Phil Lang's were in the stage version, and Bennett was a very good orchestrator, so you can imagine how good these new ones are.