Compact Disc is of course a real boon here. You take your choice—a complete performance with full spoken text or just the musical nuggets. For my own part, the words, and there are so many, don't bear too much repetition. They belong in the theatre alongside the dance and the mime—a once-in-a-while treat. I can't see myself 'programming them in' too often at home. Which is not to say that they aren't splendidly delivered on this occasion. On the contrary, the casting here is clever, the words and drama duly relished: we've Sting, something of a latter-day folk hero himself, suitably Jack-the-lad—ingenuous, eager, hard-headed, but with that essential streak of vulnerability (his vocal acting really has come on). He has more than his work cut out with the He/She-Devil of Vanessa Redgrave (yes, these are emancipated times)—a raddled, salivating creation, or rather creations since Redgrave sports a good line in disguises—a southern American red-neck, at one point, and a prim, fusty spinster (the Devil ''disguised as a woman''—double-bluff) who tempts the hapless soldier with her precious gems. (I like the cheeky insinuation of ''Baubles, Bangles and Beads'' from Kismet on the words ''Watches! Necklaces! And Rings!''.) Then, of course, there's Ian McKellen's suave Narrator—the ideal master of ceremonies. A good time was clearly had by all.
And the musical proceedings? You'd be hard-pushed to improve upon this particular Sinfonietta septet. How do you better a trumpeter like John Wallace? The brilliance of both sound and articulation, his amazing feats of tonguing in the fiendish ''Royal March'', quite take the breath away. Then there is clarinet wizard Michael Collins, so plaintive in the wistful ''Pastorale''; and the stalwart Nona Liddell, now sweet, now mordant, in charge of the soldier's fiddle. The rising young conducting star, Kent Nagano, appears to have hit upon just the right tempos, his characterization and that of his players, is spot-on (not least in that sexy tango which rouses the Princess from her sick bed). The sound-quality is vivid with no superfluous stage business and minimal 'effects'. I can't think that anything is missing.'