As the young lovers ran, arms outstretched to each other from opposite ends of the stage, the audience were most decidedly not supposed to be under the impression that the hounds of hell were about to burst on to the scene.

Fear was etched on to the faces of the public, and in the orchestra pit the principal violinist fought the desperate urge to scream in pain as he urgently encouraged his colleagues to try and drown out the sadistic sound ricocheting through the theatre.

Maurice Golding at the piano couldn’t understand what all the audience’s fuss seemed to be about – he guessed the actors were having a bad night. Carefully focusing on the sheet music in front of him, something looked different, but the conductor was grinning so he played on to the finale’s towering crescendo.

The performance ending, the lovers embraced.

With a flourish, Maurice triumphantly finished on the wrong chord.

Somewhere, an entire party of pensioners fainted.

Baton raised high, Lucifer turned to the audience and took a bow.