Sony Classical will release Igor Stravinsky’s “The Soldier’s Tale” recorded by Roger Waters next month.
“The Soldier’s Tale” is a musical theatre piece conceived in 1918 by Stravinsky and Swiss writer C. F. Ramuz, and based on the Russian folk tale “The Runaway Soldier and the Devil” from the collection of Alexander Afanasyev.
In the original story, a soldier trades his fiddle to the devil in return for unlimited wealth. Waters has rewritten the text of the original piece for his adaptation.
In his recording, Waters plays all of the roles — the principal parts of the Soldier, the Devil and the Narrator, as well as all supporting characters. As originally conceived, the piece uses three actors for the principal roles, along with one or more dancers.
Other recent adaptations of “The Soldier’s Tale” include an animated version featuring Max von Sydow and broadcast on PBS in 1984; a 1993 version by Kurt Vonnegut that set the story in WWII; and a jazz version by Joan Sanmartí in 2002.
Waters’s “The Soldier’s Tale” is set for release Oct. 26.
Oh, so this was the card Waters was holding when he recently sold himself out as a bullhorn for Kremlin propaganda. I get it, he really wants to play the role of the Devil.