In November 1967 the Bristol Light Opera Club presented Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, “A Comic Operetta in Three Acts” in Phil Park’s new book and lyrics, with the music adapted and arranged by Ronald Hanmer, for a week at the Bristol Hippodrome. The programme promised action set “without any regard for credibility, in unspecified Ancient Times”, with Malcolm Daw as Orpheus, Ann McNee as Eurydice, Roderick Young as Pluto and Brian Harding as Jupiter among a cast of 25 gods, mortals and muses. Sally Noble produced, Vernon Jones conducted the augmented Hippodrome Orchestra, and the Club thanked its own stage staff “for making all the properties”. The show, the programme noted, was “acted and produced entirely by amateurs”.
Cast
- Calliope — Mary Lamb
- Eurydice — Ann McNee
- Orpheus — Malcolm Daw
- Pluto — Roderick Young
- Cupid — Elizabeth Soloman
- Venus — Teresa Davey
- Jupiter — Brian Harding
- Diana — Sylvia Jordan
- Mars — Ken Jordan
- Juno — Esmé Salter
- Mercury — George Bayliss
- Vulcan — John Bennett
- Aurora — Cicely Meyer
- Ceres — Dorothy Earp
- Flora — Myra Cook
- Hebe — Christine Heming
- Iris — Judith Bright
- Minerva — Jean Licence
- Pomona — Brenda Bennett
- Vesta — Peggy Rocke
- Apollo — Charles Andrews
- Neptune — Ken Matthews
- Icarus — David Leat
- Styx — Derek Arkinstall
- Bacchus — Tony Roberts