Véronique

From Monday 31st January to Saturday 5th February 1949 the Bristol Light Opera Club staged André Messager’s Véronique, “a comic opera in three acts” set in the Paris of King Louis Philippe, at the Victoria Rooms, Clifton, playing each evening at 7 p.m. (except Friday 4th February) with a Saturday matinee. Proceeds were “to be given to charity”. A. Cranfield Abbott produced and wrote the programme’s note on the story, which ends “we must all fall a victim to ‘Véronique'”, with H. N. Wybourne as “Musical Director and Conductor” of the club’s Orchestral Section. Four understudies were thanked in the programme and given their parts at the Saturday matinee, and the Bath Operatic Society lent the flowers.

Cast

• Agatha (Mme. Coquenard) — Lilian Offer / Barbara Fryer
• Monsieur Coquenard — Wilfrid Brokenshire
• Hélène de Solanges — Cynthia Glover / Jean Davies
• Ermerance, Comtesse de Champ d’Azur — Gladys Massey
• Seraphin — Lewis Clare / Foster Payne
• Florestan de Valaincourt — Basil Smith
• Monsieur Loustot, alias Baron de Merlettes — Horace de Lacy Adams
• Aunt Benoit — Evelyn Adams
• Denise — Molly Gibbs / Joyce Bartlett
• Sophie — Kathleen Houlden
• Elise — Peggy King
• Zoé — Hylda Keynton
• Irma — Phyllis Prudhoe
• Héloise — Gwen Sutton
• Celeste — Dorothy Clarke
• Octave — Larry Stradling
• Felicien — Mark Murphy
• Achille — Ralph Parnell
• Max — Gordon Dancey
• Orderly (of the National Reserve) — Graham Parnell
• Portier — Hugh Thomson