<P> "Stranger in Paradise" is a popular song from the musical Kismet (1953), and is credited to Robert Wright and George Forrest . Like almost all the music in that show, the melody was taken from music composed by Alexander Borodin (1833--1887), in this case, the "Gliding Dance of the Maidens", from the Polovtsian Dances in the opera Prince Igor (1890). The song in the musical is a lovers' duet and describes the transcendent feelings that love brings to their surroundings . Later versions were mostly edited to be sung by male solo artists . </P> <P> In Act 1 of the musical Kismet, the beautiful Marsinah is viewing the garden of a house her father wishes to buy . The young Caliph, who is dressed in disguise, has already been struck by her beauty from afar and enters the garden pretending to be a gardener, so that he might speak to her . She begins to sing about how the garden has been strangely transformed before her eyes . He takes over the song and sings about how he, too, strangely feels he has entered paradise when he stands beside an angel such as she . In the song he asks for an indication that she feels the same way about him . Though she feels a strong draw to him she breaks from the song and asks him a mundane question about what flowers to plant . He asks her to meet him again in the garden at moonrise, and she instantly agrees . He asks her to promise she'll keep her rendezvous, and she now takes up the song, singing that it was his face that had made her feel in paradise . They now sing together that they are in bliss in each other's company and how much they need to know the other cares . </P> <P> Richard Kiley and Doretta Morrow performed the song in the original cast of Kismet (1953). Vic Damone and Ann Blyth performed the song in the 1955 film . </P>

Hold my hand i am a stranger in paradise