Ruddygore was known in hushed whispers as "The Witch's Curse" when it was penned by Gilbert and Sullivan in 1887.
The Really Authentic Gilbert and Sullivan Performance Trust has dug the original gothic script out of its sepulchre for its Dunedin premiere this week.
The first of the supernatural operas tells the terrible tale of the Baronet of Ruddygore, Sir Rupert Murgatroyd, who was a notorious witch persecutor in the time of the Inquisition.
But, as one of his victims is being burnt at the stake, she places a curse on him and his successors to commit a crime every day, or die in agony.
Ever since, every Baronet of Ruddygore has fallen under the influence of the dark curse.
"But, in the wonderful world of Gilbert and Sullivan all is not what it seems," director Hilary Norris says.
"All the characters in Ruddygore experience and exhibit good and bad. Morals and expectations are turned on their heads and audiences are left to work out for themselves who to cheer for and who to boo.
"Even the so-called good characters behave in unforgivable ways. Which is, of course, why we love them so much," she says with a laugh.
"It's one of those shows that many people don't know, but it's one of the funnier Gilbert and Sullivan operas. It's a spoof of a melodrama.
"The male lead is a handsome hero who is an evil baronet in disguise."
The Ruddygore principals are Michael Gray, Justin Freind, Geoff Patton, Bruce McMillan, Roger Wilson, Frances Moore, Claire Barton, Sandra Shaw Bennett, Laura Harvey and Glenda Wallace.
"I've got the cast from heaven," Norris enthuses.
The opera also reunites a trio of New Zealand's brightest young singers.
Mezzo-soprano Claire Barton and soprano Frances Moore were the two youngest 2007 Lexus Song Quest finalists, while Barton and baritone Michael Gray are 2008 New Zealand Opera emerging artists.
They also played lead roles in The Mikado last year.
"Dunedin should be so proud of these young people who are coming out of here, like Claire and Michael. They've got tremendous futures in opera," Norris says.
"I've known Claire since high school and she's just getting better and better. She's got a voice to die for and she's also a wonderful comic actress.
"Michael has also got a beautiful opera voice and is also a wonderful actor. They're not only superb singers, they're really talented actors."
The production has already proved a hit with Australian tenor Freind, who married his fiancée, Katherine, in St Paul's Cathedral on August 1.
"On our first day in Dunedin we walked through St Paul's and decided to get married there. It was lovely," the Perth-based singer told the Otago Daily Times during rehearsal last Sunday.
"Dunedin's a lovely place and we couldn't think of anywhere better to get married."
The witnesses for the ceremony were Norris and Ruddygore musical director Michael Andrewes.
"They arrived in Dunedin during the worst weather and just fell in love with it. Within six days they'd got married," Andrewes says.
"Ruddygore has more than a passing reference to brides and grooms, so it's all rather appropriate."
The Mayfair Theatre will also add its imposing character to the production.
"It's got that wonderful historical ambience, which makes it perfect for something like this," Norris says.
"The performers love playing there, because you're very, very close to the audience, so it's got that special intimacy."
"The Mayfair has great acoustics, too," Andrewes says.
"You want to be able to hear every word in both song and dialogue in Gilbert and Sullivan."
The Really Authentic Gilbert and Sullivan Performance Trust was established in Dunedin in October 2001, to produce all 13 Gilbert and Sullivan operas.
"It's a very Dunedin project," Andrewes says.
"This is the ninth one and we've got four to go."
G&S, as it is often abbreviated, remains popular in Dunedin, having a sellout season with The Mikado last year, Ruddygore was produced for the first time by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company on January 22, 1887, at the Savoy Theatre in London.
It was so controversially received that Gilbert and Sullivan changed the title to Ruddigore the following night after criticism "ruddy" was too similar to the then-taboo curse word "bloody".
To Gilbert and Sullivan it simply meant "red blood".
But they succumbed to the critics when a damning review appeared the next day in The New York Times under the headline: "Their First Flat Failure; The First Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Not a Success".
"When the curtain finally fell there was hissing - the first ever heard in the Savoy Theatre," the newspaper reported.
"The audience even voiced sentiments in words and there were shouts and cries such as 'Take off this rot!', 'Give us The Mikado'!"Gilbert and Sullivan sat down and rewrote much of the opera for the following night's performance.
The Dunedin production will return to the original D'Oyly Carte Opera Company script for the 1887 premiere.
"By returning to the first-night script, which includes several passages of text later deleted, we feel justified in restoring Gilbert's title of Ruddygore, as it was originally spelled," Andrewes says.
Ruddygore opens at the Mayfair Theatre at 2pm on Sunday and runs till August 30.
