Performed to enthusiastic audiences almost two years ago, The Devil's Tale - a collaboration between the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, choreographer Yuri Ng Yue-lit, dancer Xing Liang and veteran stage director Fredric Mao Chun-fai - is to return under a different guise: A Soldier's Story.

Based on Igor Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier's Tale), which tells the Russian folk tale of a soldier trading his fiddle for all the riches in the world, this is the third version of Ng's work, which had its premiere at the Aichi Arts Centre in Japan as a contemporary dance piece in 2004.

The piece then made its local debut a year later, as part of a classical concert, with the Sinfonietta.

Tomorrow's performance, which is again a Sinfonietta programme, will reunite Xing and Japanese dancer Shirai Tsuyoshi for the third time, while Mao will reprise his role as the narrator for the second time. New York-based dancer-choreographer Abby Chan Man-yee will put in a guest appearance, and Jay Jen Loo is the third dancer to share the soldier role.

Ng says A Soldier's Story, which is set in a corporate environment, is more optimistic in tone. 'The piece has many layers and the audience can interpret it whichever way they like. But I see it as a allegory of a dilemma many local contemporary artists have to face today. Will they choose art over money? After the last run I think I have found the answer, and my conclusion is an optimistic one, that there is still hope.'

The choreographer says this piece is more the story of a fighting soldier than that of a devil, an ex-soldier, who recounts his journey to the inferno.

Ng's positive take on the piece blends well with the rest of the concert, which opens with Stravinsky's Pulcinella Suite and ends with the blazing and colourful classic The Firebird Suite. The programme celebrates the 125th birthday of the Russian composer.

Music director-conductor of the Sinfonietta Yip Wing-sie says Stravinsky is one of her favourites because his compositions are always a challenge. 'His music doesn't need a big orchestra for it to be heard,' she says. 'And the three pieces we have chosen for the concert are a good mix of styles and orchestral sizes. Yuri is also keen to involve the ensemble in the dance piece.'

Both Xing and Tsuyoshi are looking forward to dancing Ng's work for the third time. While the choreography remains more or less the same, they say they 'get more out of the piece' each time.

'We keep finding new ways to interpret the work,' says Xing. 'In the first run [in Japan] we used a lot more text and language while the Hong Kong performance was more focused on the relationship between the four characters and the orchestra, which is a finer interpretation.'

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