From a PR perspective, it couldn't be better. Boasting a new translation by Seamus Heaney, performed by tenor Ian Bostridge and directed by Deborah Warner, the new production of Janacek's song-cycle Diary of One Who Vanished has already whipped up a storm of publicity.

The piece, which lasts for just 35 minutes, was written in 1917-19. The songs describe a young man who is forced to forsake his family after falling in love with a beautiful gypsy girl. The sentimentality of all this, inspired by a series of poems published in a Prague newspaper, the author of which was supposed to have mysteriously disappeared (hence the title) is more than counterbalanced by Janacek's stark, desolate score.

Bostridge shines in the role of the Young Man, the bell-like clarity of his voice perfectly illuminating the character's feverish desperation. Mezzo Ruby Philogene infuses the Gypsy Girl with a beguiling physical and vocal presence. And pianist Julius Drake gives the music an almost terrifying angularity.

The contributions of Heaney and Warner are far less clear-cut. The translation, which Warner claims was delivered "by return post" is clear and precise but nothing more, and its occasional Irish colloquialisms are incongruous.

Warner attempts to complement the songs with snatches of video projection, combined with different backdrops, petals raining from the flies and a mimed sex scene under the piano. Yet her innovations expose the microscopic scale of this work, which comes across as insubstantial and too brief. Even Janacek was never sure whether Diary of One who Vanished should be presented as a concert performance or as a full-blown music drama. Warner's production may ensure that, in future, the choice will be less agonising.

• At the National Theatre, London SE1, November 3-6. Box office: 0171-452 3000