Fall 2005:
Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw
Production:
NOVEMBER 10, 11, 12, 13: Ted Mann Concert Hall
CRAIG KIRCHHOFF, conductor
DAVID WALSH, director
CAROL SYLVAIN, set design
MARCUS DILLIARD, lighting design
JULIE ANN RIGHALER, costume and hair design
The Opera:
When Henry James coined his “little ghost story” for serialization in Collier’s magazine in the mid-1890s, little did he realize that it was destined to become perhaps the finest example of this genre in the English language. Ostensibly intended as a diverting Christmas tale, its depiction of corrupted innocence in Victorian England takes us far beyond the realms into which any conventional Christmas story would dare venture.
In its broadest sense, it is an examination of the nature of evil at a profound level. It is disturbing because it deals with the corruption of innocence, but not simply through a sort of sophisticated villainy. It demonstrates that evil is treacherous and, in its most dangerous form, is dissimulated under layers of good intentions or even beyond the threshold of consciousness: i.e., the evil that can be found in the apparently good.
The specific theme of The Turn of the Screw is sexual awakening. Much like Frank Wedekind’s play Spring Awakening, written in Vienna during the same period, it deals with the repressive moral attitude of an adult world that fails to guide young people through the turmoil and terror of puberty, instead plunging them into shame and despair. The tragedy of the Governess in The Turn of the Screw is that, by insisting on absolute moral choices between innocence and evil, she denies the children the full and free realization of their fantasy and her actions even precipitate a death.
In their operatic realization of Henry James’ text, librettist Myfanwy Piper and composer Benjamin Britten have remained faithful to its inherent values. As in his other chamber operas, Britten’s spare but brilliantly conceived score captures with its lush orchestration and daring combinations of instruments all of the tension and tragic pathos of this marvelous story.