In February 1939 the Bristol Light Opera Club presented Lilac Time, the play with music drawn from Franz Schubert, at the Victoria Rooms, Clifton, each evening at 7.30. It was the Club’s sixth production, following Princess Ida and The Gondoliers. A note signed “H. M.” says that “steady progress has marked the work of the Club during the past year”, with “a personnel of more than 100”. Musical director H. L. Winston Hurst calls the piece “a play with music rather than a musical play or operetta”, reminding “Gilbert and Sullivan enthusiasts” that the show probably owes most of its music to Sullivan, who rescued Schubert manuscripts in Vienna in 1867. The orchestral section was conducted by Lewis Ramell.
Cast
- Mrs. Grimm — Gladys Massey
- Mrs. Weber — Hilda Greenslade
- Rosi — Lilia Edwards
- Novotny — R. B. Draper
- Ferdinand Binder — T. B. Smith
- Andreas Braun — R. Myerscough
- Schani — Brian Jayson
- Tilli — Doris D. England
- Willi — Kathleen Houlden
- Lili — Eveline Ford
- Johann Michael Vogl — A. K. Houlden
- Moritz von Schwind — W. E. Leonard
- Kappel — B. Bamber
- Baron Franz von Schober — L. Weston
- Franz Schubert — C. Wiltshire
- Christian Veit — A. Symon
- Count Scharntorff — E. M. Cramp
- Mrs. Veit — Iney A. Pearce
- Sally — Marian G. Gane
- Demoiselle Fiametta Marini — Marie Porter