The shadow of the Tower of London will provide a dramatic backdrop for the latest Really Authentic Gilbert and Sullivan Performance Trust production.
The bell of St Peter's, which heralded executions in the dark tower, will echo at the Mayfair Theatre this weekend.
The Yeomen of the Guard is one of Gilbert and Sullivan's darker and most popular operas.
And the production has already seen some drama, after guest lead Giles Davies had to withdraw from the principal role of "Jack Point" just days before rehearsals started.
"He had to pull out, because of family reasons, 10 days before he was due to arrive at the airport. It was all very Shakespearean, really," director Hilary Norris said this week.
"We were very lucky to find Wellington singer Derek Miller as a replacement, as he had just finished playing the same role for the Gilbert and Sullivan Light Opera in Wellington."
The all-star cast includes Dunedin soprano Emma Fraser and English tenor Stephen Brown.
"It's an absolutely wonderful opera and a superb cast. It's got everything a theatre director's looking for - from character depth to relationship depth - which is what I love," Norris says.
"It requires very good acting, because the characters are so multidimensional. We've also got our wonderful regulars in the chorus, who come back year after year. It's just a fantastic local production."
Local talent has been the foundation-stone of the Really Authentic Gilbert and Sullivan Trust projects.
"I was keen to re-create the feel of the Tower of London around the time of Henry the Eighth, as the Tower must have been a frightening and formidable place," Norris says.
"Kari Morseth designed the set for us and she has really captured the brooding quality to it. She's very cleverly given me height and perspective to work with. We've also got these wonderful Elizabethan and Tudor masks made by Karen Elliot."
The Yeomen of the Guard premiered at the Savoy Theatre in London on October 3, 1888, and ran for 423 performances.
"It's a really interesting piece because, while it does end in tragedy, there's also an amazing amount of humour," Norris says.
"Gilbert and Sullivan are really good stories. You just get sucked into them. There are lots of twists and turns and all the usual Gilbert and Sullivan fun and games. They're always very clever stories and very funny characters," she said.
"I am confident that it will be a very special production."
The opera was the 11th collaboration of 14 comic operas between librettist William Schwenck Gilbert (1836-1911) and composer Arthur Seymour Sullivan (1842-1900), although one was lost.
The operas were staged at the Royal Princess Theatre, which opened in 1862 in High St on the site opposite the present day Warehouse upper car park.
J. C. Williamson brought professional performances to Dunedin until the 1950s, when the amateur Dunedin Gilbert and Sullivan Society was founded and performed annual productions until the early 1980s.
The Really Authentic Gilbert and Sullivan Trust was established in Dunedin in October 2001, to produce all 13 surviving Gilbert and Sullivan operas in chronological order.
The Yeomen of the Guard will be the 10th opera produced. Those already staged are Trial by Jury and The Sorcerer (2002), HMS Pinafore and The Pirates of Penzance (2003), Patience (2004), Iolanthe (2005), Princess Ida (2006), The Mikado (2007) and last year's Ruddygore.
Norris directed Princess Ida and Ruddygore for the trust.
"There's only three more to go after this. Hats off to Michael [Andrewes, who conceived the Really Authentic Gilbert and Sullivan Performance Trust]. It's a very, very exciting programme and it's quite an amazing achievement. It's also been great because it's given a lot of Otago singers work and experience."
The three remaining scheduled productions are The Gondoliers (next year), Utopia Limited (2011) and The Grand Duke (2012).
"It's a massive achievement to have got to number 10. We're very pleased. We've nearly made it," Michael Andrewes said.
"It has been a big undertaking, because every year we have to raise finance and organise the cast and everything, but it's been very well-supported.
"It's a very special project, the complete run in historical sequence. I don't think it's ever been done like this before. It's introduced Gilbert and Sullivan to a whole new generation, who haven't grown up with them."
"It's built up a critical mass."
See it
> The Yeomen of the Guard opens at 2.30pm on Sunday at the Mayfair Theatre, then plays at 8pm from Tuesday until next Saturday.
> The cast is: Derek Miller (Jack Point), Stephen Brown (Colonel Fairfax), Emma Fraser (Elsie Maynard), Martin Kidd (Sir Richard), Bruce McMillan (Sergeant Meryll), David Holmes (Leonard Meryll), Julian Anderson (Wilfred Shadbolt), Jane Robertson (Phoebe), Sandra Shaw Bennett (Dame Carruthers) and Nadya Shaw Bennett (Kate).
> For more information about The Really Authentic Gilbert and Sullivan Performance Trust, visit gns-dunedin.org.nz
> English tenor Stephen Brown, who plays Colonel Fairfax and is recognised as a world specialist in the interpretation of Gilbert and Sullivan works, will talk about "Reminiscences and Anecdotes of Gilbert and Sullivan" at 6pm on Saturday at Otago Boys High School.
