Gothic Opera returns to Battersea Arts Centre this Halloween with the UK staged premiere of Jacques Offenbach’s “Die Rheinnixen” (The Nixies of the Rhine).

Performances will take place Oct. 30 and 31, and Nov. 1 at 7:30 p.m., with a matinee on Nov. 2 at 5 p.m.

The Offenbach piece will be directed by Max Hoehn, who noted that “this production updates the opera’s setting from the Rheinland of the sixteenth-century to the postwar chaos of the short-lived Weimar Republic, with visuals inspired by the dream factory of German expressionist cinema and the political poster art of the period.”

Hannah von Wiehler conducts the piece in a new chamber orchestration by composer Leon Haxby.

“Die Rheinnixen” had an unsuccessful premiere in Vienna in 1864 as the lead tenor was ill, forcing numerous cuts to the score. The work has remained obscure though it would eventually receive a revival in France more than a century later.

“Die Rheinnixen” will be sung in German with English surtitles.

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