In January, when Melanie Helton found out she would direct the School of Music’s Opera Theatre’s production of “Orpheus in the Underworld,” she had a vision of how she wanted the play to happen.

“Technically everything went very well,” the assistant professor of voice said. “The nice thing was, the show looked like I had imagined it in my dreams - the students were fantastic.”

The student performers mixed modern comedy and wit with Jacques Offenbach’s classic script, and their Sunday night presentation at the Auditorium’s Fairchild Theatre was a riot. The costumes were well acclimated to each character, while the various use of flashlights, glow-in-the-dark mugs and lighting effects made each scene that much better.

Music performance graduate student Lara Troyer, who played Eurydice, the unfaithful wife of Orpheus, on Friday and Sunday, did a wonderful job with her character. Orpheus, played by vocal music education junior John Bragle, complimented her nicely with his sly, vain attitude.

The MSU Symphony Orchestra provided the music. During the first act it tended to drown out the characters’ voices on stage, but after that they aligned nicely.

Musicology master student Ryan Powers, who played Pluto, was hilarious, introducing himself in Act 1 by dancing around the stage in a goofy manner while disguised as Aristeus, assistant professor of agriculture. His hilarious one-liners continued for the duration of the script, including a witty reference to “The Crocodile Hunter.”

Vocal music education junior Jeff Kitson, who played John Styx, the guardian of the elevator between Mount Olympus, Earth and Hades, also added a fair share of funny lines.

“(Kitson) happens to be a good ad-libber, so I basically gave him free reign to do what he wanted as long as it wasn’t really dirty,” Helton said.

Helton said she worked closely with the students for long periods of time to get their input and ideas for the play.

“Many of the ideas for dialogue came from students,” she said. “It was a very collaborative effort.”