The Turn of the Screw, Opera by B. Britten
The Turn of the Screw by Benjamin Britten is staged at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma with a cast of six singers plus the theatre's own orchestra. A two-act opera with a prologue, this is one of Britten's darkest compositions, owing much to the gothic novella from which it was adapted, Henry James' book of the same name. Myfanwy Piper, who was well-known to Britten due to her husband being a long-time collaborator with the British composer, wrote the libretto. The opera debuted at the La Fenice Theatre in Venice on 14 September 1954.
Following the prologue, which sets out a series of unusual circumstances in what appears to be a written account or testimonial, the first act of The Turn of the Screw begins with a governess' journey to a big estate. On arrival, the governess meets two children, a boy and a girl, who will be under her charge. She also meets the housekeeper, Mrs Grose. Soon, a sense of unease emerges because it turns out the boy is to be excluded from his school and a mysterious figure is spotted in a nearby tower. Later, while the girl is playing, the governess sees the former governess and is disturbed. Mrs Grose explains that the man in the tower was a former valet at the estate, a man who had an affair with the previous governess. She also says that both individuals are dead. Even more chillingly, the boy goes on to sing a disturbing song that hints at ill deeds, while the girl claims to be able to see ghosts.
Britten's orchestration for The Turn of the Screw reflects the eerie nature of its plot. The composer makes a great deal of use of dissonance and repeated themes, or leitmotifs, to signal shifts or connections in the storytelling. A noteworthy twelve-note section of music is a good example of this sort of scoring. Britten uses it as a theme for the 'Screw' in the prologue and it is subsequently adapted and reinvented in various ways as the opera develops.
This production of The Turn of the Screw at Rome's Teatro Costanzi – as the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma is also known – offers modern audiences much more than a 19th-century gothic ghost story. Britten's version hints at dark themes and psychological terror while remaining a gripping story that never ventures too far into the supernatural world.