"Which Witch" was originally commisioned for the "Festspillene in Bergen" in 1987. The composers, Ingrid Bjornov and Benedicte Adrian, had been working on a project called "Rock VS Opera" for two years, where the idea was to combine rock and opera. And this idea was brought further in "Which Witch".
The libretto is based on a story found in "Malleus Maleficarum" - the witch finders manual. An Italian girl falls in love with a German bishop, and she follows him to his home in Germany. When the bishop falls mysteriously ill, she gets the blame. They call for the Inquisition to reverse the spell upon the guilty one. When the Italian girl dies the same night, this is seen as a proof of her guilt. They adapted the storyline a bit, but the main story was kept.
The first song had a strong link to the "Rock VS Opera" project (like "She Devil", "Possessed" and "Little Devils"), but they also included some amazingly fresh and pure tunes (like "Love Duet" and "Eternally").
The "Festspillene in Bergen" were a tremendous success, and they did also release a studio CD with the highlights from the show (WW Original Studio Album 1987). After this, the composers started developing the musical, by adding a few songs, and by creating the character "Anna Regina" (the bishop's sister). The show toured all over Norway, besides having concerts in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Canada, Spain, the U.S.A. and the Netherlands.
I believe this picture is from around 1989, from "Love Chant"
In 1992 the musical opened in London. Most of the critics were really bad, and it had a short run of only a few months in West End. Luckilly, the show was recorded both on CD and VHS, so we've been able to enjoy it despite it's failure.
The show has later been produced in Sweden and Denmark, as well as many amatheur productions in Norway and Germany.
