Director: Peter James, Musical Director: David Firman

The Emperor's Nightingale was first performed at the First All Children's Theatre, produced by Meridee Stein. Nightingale was first performed in Great Britain at the 1982 Buxton Festival in a version directed by Hugh Wooldridge. This version's first performance was at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, London, on December 18, 1982.

The booklet contains three B&W pictures of the main performers: Sarah Brightman, Gordon Sandison and Susannah Fellows. There is a half a page text by Charles Strouse which is somehow a synopsis.

The 'non-main' characters are played by children from several schools (listed in the small booklet).

A rare gem. This recording is fantastic. The performances are fantastic, the Emperor (Gordon Sandison) is incredible, the Death (Michael Heath) is as frightening as possible (even if she's only present in one track, I was so impressed that I absolutely wanted to mention it here). Of course, Sarah Brightman has a perfect voice for playing the Nightingale, but the Maid (Susannah Fellows) performs at least as well.
The score is also very nice, and contains lots of wonderful themes (For a song to be beautiful, the singer must be free, And when the Nightingale sings, she brings..., etc.). It is a really beautiful score which leads the listener from the beginning to the end without a break. Of course, the tale itself is quite nice but the way it's told is much nicer. There is a lot of humour, even in some tragic moments. This sense of humour is also very present through the narrator's description of what happens. It lightens the situation while it would have been too dark otherwise.

To conclude, what impressed me the most in this recording is the way the tale, the score and the voices melt together into something particularly beautiful.