With a full production of Jacques Offenbach’s “The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein” on the horizon, the 38-year-old, Ann Arbor-based Comic Opera Guild is getting back to its roots.

“We did a lot of (Offenbach) in the early years, because for me, he’s the ultimate,” said COG managing director Tom Petiet, who noted the company previously presented Offenbach's “Orpheus in the Underworld,” “La Perichole,” “La Belle Helene,” and “Robinson Crusoe,” among others. “To me, there’s just nothing better. And I still think that.”

Plus, “Duchess” marks the first fully staged production for COG since 2004’s “Die Fledermaus.”

“We didn’t have a big enough audience for that show,” said Petiet. “We lost money, so at that point, we said, ‘We can’t do this any more.’”

As an alternative, COG began presenting staged concerts of obscure operettas and early American musicals that were largely lost to time — including works by Jerome Kern, John Philip Sousa and Victor Herbert.

These projects required a great deal of research, in order to pull the pieces of each show together (sometimes from different parts of the world); and in several cases, no recording of the shows’ songs existed, so COG has recently been filling a void in musical theater history.

“Duchess” is not nearly so obscure, however; and it’s still staged often in Europe, and occasionally in America (albeit usually in French). But Petiet did his own translation of the show into English, and it’s been “on the shelf” since 2000.

“I’ve been wanting to do this for some time,” said Petiet. “I’ve just been waiting for the right time to do it.”

What’s caused it to be shelved for so long?

“French material is not as well known here as, say, the Germans’,” said Petiet. “There’s not as much of a French population as you might think, living near Detroit. … So we have to intersperse shows like ‘Die Fledermaus’ and ‘The Merry Widow’ into the mix. And also, in recent years, with the fall-off in audience attendance, we’ve been staging smaller shows. … But this time, we got a good date at the Mendelssohn (Theatre), … so we decided to go for it.”

“Duchess” premiered in Paris in 1867 and became a popular hit. The show tells the story of a Duchess who falls for a lazy but handsome soldier. Hoping to marry him, she bestows him with titles and power; but when the enemy approaches, the man must lead the troops — a job he is ill-equipped to handle. He bungles the assignment terribly and returns to the arms of his girlfriend, Wanda, while the Duchess must face her fiancée, the foppish Prince Paul, whom she’s put off for years.

“At the end, she’s not sure she even has a country anymore,” said Petiet. “So Prince Paul asks, ‘Now do you have time to marry me?’”

Beyond the Duchess’ ill-fated infatuation, though, the show satirically pokes fun at the military, and for this reason, it was banned when France lost the Franco-Prussian War — at least until the sting of that loss healed.

“The show is very funny,” said Petiet. “It’s just hysterical. And I love the music. … It’s difficult, as the cast is now finding out. But it’s a lot of fun when you get it right.”

With the exception of having to re-work puns, Petiet claims that translating the play’s humor was relatively simple.

“I didn’t do a strict translation,” said Petiet. “I did some re-working and tightening, so three acts became two acts, and I cleaned up the third act. In that time, a third act was tacked on because that’s what the audience expected. But now, people want a show to be over in two or two and a half hours. … Also, one of the things I try to do, and all of our translators have done this, is to make it appear as if the songs were originally done in English. If you’ve got tortuous lyrics, it’s obvious that it’s been translated. But when you listen to this, my hope is that it will feel like it was written in English, in terms of the understandability of the lyrics, the meter fitting the notes, and if you’ve got someone singing high notes, making sure they hit on the right vowel.”

Soprano Barbara Scanlon, a veteran of touring productions of “Phantom of the Opera” and “Evita,” stars as the Duchess, and Petiet directs a cast of 24, as they present the show at both the Mendelssohn Theatre and, in April, at Canton’s Village Theater.

“This is a big adventure for us, to see if this will fly,” said Petiet. “We would like to keep doing these kind of productions. … We’re the only group doing this kind of thing in Michigan, … but it’s a matter of breaking through that initial barrier. Once people see it, they realize, ‘Oh, this isn’t serious opera. This is fun!’”

Jenn McKee is the entertainment digital journalist for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at jennmckee@annarbor.com or 734-623-2546, and follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.