Edinburgh University Opera Club was launched in 1967 with Dido and Aeneas. King Arthur (heavily adapted) had been given a professional staging in Edinburgh by a visiting company in 1970. Purcell's grandest stage work was therefore an appropriate challenge for a welcome collaboration between the Club and the Department of English Literature, who supplied the actors for the Shakespearean element of the piece. While some of the music was familiar, the semi-opera format was a fascinating novelty - always difficult to do convincingly, but well worth the attempt.
The actors were:
Anthony Howatt (Duke & Prologue); David Sangster (Egeus); Christine Roberts (Hermia); Jane Aldgate (Helena); Ian Henderson (Lysander); Anthony Kirwan (Demetrius).
Ian Mandleberg (Bottom); Hilton McRae (Quince); Robert Carr (Snout); Gordon Roberts (Snug); Billy Kay (Flute).
Elizabeth-Mary Dods (Titania); Brean Hammond (Oberon); Jim Martin (Puck); Rosamund Birks & Sharman MacDonald (Fairies); Ian Muirhead (Indian Boy).
The dancers were: Linda Miller, Joanne Tagny; Fred Warder, Rosamund Birks, Sharman MacDonald.
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