Dennis Arundell

Dennis Drew Arundell OBE[1] (22 July 1898 – 10 December 1988)[2] was a British actor, librettist, opera scholar, translator, producer, director, conductor and composer of incidental music who was born in Finchley and died in Camden.

[3] Arundell's studies at St John's College, Cambridge, reading Classics and Music, were interrupted by the First World War, where in 1918 he was gassed and invalided out.

[3] He also developed a lifelong love of the music of Purcell; publishing a book and conducting and producing The Fairy-Queen in Hyde Park in 1927, and editing King Arthur the following year.

His professional acting debut took place at the Lyric Hammersmith in 1926 in the revue Riverside Nights and he created the role of Viscount Harkaway in Tantivy Towers.

Among translations from this period were Le Roi David (which he had staged in 1929 in its first British performance), Háry János, Schwanda the Bagpiper, Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher, From the House of the Dead, Il matrimonio segreto, and, for the film by Powell and Pressburger, The Tales of Hoffmann.