NAPOLEON: Highlights (SCORE CD 49)

- Is it really Napoleonic? Is it worthy of its legendary subjects? Delicious orchestral colours, performances cooked at a high temperature, angelic choirs and the rattle of battle in a sampler of an ambitious score

Book and music by Timothy Williams. Book and lyrics by Andrew Sabiston

Cast: Paul Baker (Napoleon), Anastasia Barzee (Josephine), Jody Crosier (Anton), Sarah Ingham (Therese)

Songs: The Dream Within; Only In Fantasy; On That First Night; The Friend You Were To Me; Sweet Victory Divine

It's an EP by any other name, this sampler in a paper envelope, with five songs from the musical recently opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre. The show was expected to be a flop, and even as I write this I have a telephone call from an unsung heroine who has just been to see it. What did she think of it? 'Terrible, darling.' What did she make of the score? 'Instantly forgettable, darling.' What about the Josephine? 'ghastly, darling. She plays it like a sweet little girl.' And the Napoleon? 'Oh, he was awful darling.'

None of which deters me from wanting to speed to the Shaftesbury Theatre, but I only have this splendid edition of a handful of the songs by which to judge it. It sounds sumptuous, and with repeated listening Timothy Williams's music may indeed seem no less memorable, but it eventually inspires affection. This is emotionally stretched stuff, with everyone bursting blood vessels in the neck to suggest undiluted passion. The disc owes a great debt to Jonathan Tunick, a distinguished orchestrator, who dresses the music in garments that disguise the thinness of much of the material. Tunick provides big finish after big finish (even the apparently soft number here, the unassuming 'The Friend You Were To Me', manages a huge climax). The effect thus gained is tremendous, and the acoustic has enough theatrical dimension to create atmosphere.

Andrew Sabiston is an often capable lyricist, and here and there he can turn a phrase that has the smack of real quality. The cast sings his words as if their lives depended on them. Paul Baker (apparently a somewhat eccentric Napoleon on stage) sounds suitably obsessed with destiny and Josephine, portrayed with blasting effectiveness by the muscular voiced Anastasia Barzee. Hers is a name unknown to me, but her delivery of 'Only In Fantasy' (and how exciting Tunick's orchestration makes the number) is one to play and play.

Anyway, it all sounds like the sort of show from which the cast must retire physically exhausted after each performance. Nobody - lyricist, composer, performers or orchestrator - holds back. If you don't believe me, listen to the great duet for Napoleon and Josephine, 'On That First Night'. If this is not irresistible tosh I don't know what is. These tempting titbits make one long to hear a complete recording, even when the battle hymn that ends the present selection resorts to some sub-Carl Orff to stir the emotions into a frenzy.

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