Featured work: The Turn of the Screw, Op. 54
Henry James
Portrait of Henry James by Jacques-Emile Blanche, 1908
Benjamin Britten’s chamber opera of 1954 is based on the classic ghost story by the American-born author Henry James (1843-1916). James’s prolific output included novels, essays, travel writing and short stories. He read prodigiously when he was young and developed a strong interest in the literatures of various cultures. He studied law at Harvard University but his love of writing urged him to abandon the law for a career as a novelist. After travelling for a number of years throughout Europe he settled in England and eventually took British citizenship in 1915. He was angered by America’s reluctance to enter the First World War and wanted to show his respect to his adopted country. A quintessential Anglophile for most of his life, many of his stories make full use of the rich, picturesque settings found throughout England and Europe.
Although much of his writing comes under the category of social realism (he wrote stories that, in his own words, contained an ‘air of reality’), James was also interested in narrative in which the supernatural featured. The novella The Turn of the Screw is the best known of such stories by him. Owen Wingrave, another of his ghost stories, was also adapted into an opera by Britten and the librettist Myfanwy Piper especially for the small screen, and was first broadcast on BBC television in May 1971. A few of the many other notable works by James include the novels Daisy Miller (1879) The Portrait of a Lady (1881), The Bostonians (1886), The Spoils of Poynton (1897), The Wings of a Dove (1902), The Ambassadors (1903) and The Golden Bowl (1904).
The novella
Jacket design for The Turn of the Screw by Patricia Moffet
The Turn of the Screw was first published in 1898. The story was originally written for an American serial publication in which was required something with a flavour of Christmas; hence the introductory chapter where ghost stories are exchanged amongst friends on a winter’s evening. One of them sends away for a story that is written in faded ink. This is the recollection of a woman who is now dead; a retelling of a mystery that affects four major players: an unnamed Governess, Miles and Flora—the two children who are entrusted to her care, and also a housekeeper Mrs Grose. James’s principal narrator is the Governess, a vulnerable figure who manages to convey the closed, even at times claustrophobic, atmosphere of a remote, haunted country house. We are told that the children’s Guardian, who lives in London, has given the Governess strict instructions not to approach him. The house in which the children live is known as Bly and it is in Essex. It is while she makes her way there that the narration is taken up by the Governess. At first she makes friends with the children but things take a turn for the worse as she is gradually made aware of the presence of two ghosts, one the former valet Peter Quint and the other the children’s former governess Miss Jessel. It soon appears that Miles is under Quint’s malevolent influence and the Governess becomes engaged in a battle with him. The tension mounts as the ghost leads Miles first into mischief and then into wickedness. The story reaches its climax when the strain between good and evil, between the Governess and Quint, in which Miles is caught becomes too great, and he dies.
Radio Times advertisement for the adaptation of The Turn of the Screw, 1 June 1932
James was strangely dismissive of the tale and described it whimsically in a letter to H. G. Wells as ‘a shameless pot boiler.’ Perhaps he wished to guard his reputation as an observer of realism and decided to play down his departure into the supernatural. The description of Bly and its surroundings, the mounting tension as Miles seems to slip into evil, and the account of fear that James’s narrator provides creates justifiable scepticism about his evaluation. Whatever the reason for his comment it cannot be denied that The Turn of the Screw remains one of the finest examples of the ghost story in nineteenth-century literature.
The story has since been adapted several times for both stage and film (notably Jack Clayton’s superb film of 1961 The Innocents), and has also been turned into a radio play. Indeed, Britten heard a radio broadcast of the play on 1 June 1932 (advertised in the Radio Times for 9.35 that evening as ‘a version for broadcasting by E.J. King Bull’) when he was eighteen years old. Six months later, on 6 January 1933 he noted in his diary that he enjoyed reading James’s ‘glorious and eerie’ novella. He added in the following day’s entry that he thought it ‘An incredible masterpiece’. Perhaps the eeriness of the story made a lasting impression on the composer, for he was able to recreate it perfectly in his chamber opera some twenty-two years later. It was in fact a subject that was ideally suited to the relatively small number of musicians required to perform the work: six singers and thirteen instrumentalists.
The librettist
Myfanwy Piper (1911-1997) was the wife of the artist John Piper whose working relationship with Britten began with The Rape of Lucretia (1946), for which he designed the scenery, and continued until Death in Venice in 1973. Myfanwy read English at St Hugh’s College, Oxford. Literature and writing were abiding interests, as was contemporary painting and she was able to combine all of these by writing on, and editing a journal about, modern art, entitled Axis, which she founded in 1935. Myfanwy also edited a book of essays, The Painter’s Object, and wrote a study of the artist Frances Hodgkins. In addition to her publishing work on modern art she also taught classes on writing at Morley College.
The authors W.H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood and Louis MacNeice were visitors to hers and John’s home, Fawley Bottom farm near Henley in the mid-1930s, as was Britten who composed some of the incidental music for theatrical works by all three writers. John Piper once recalled that the seeds of Myfanwy’s working relationship with Britten were sown during the discussions she had with him and her husband about various points in the texts of The Rape of Lucretia and Albert Herring. She was obviously someone whose point of view the composer valued. When she suggested to him that The Turn of the Screw would be a good subject for an opera he asked her opinion on who might make a suitable librettist for the project. However, once they began to think about adapting the novella in earnest there seemed little point in Britten working with anyone else. She established a relatively easy working relationship with him, despite the fact that he was quite demanding and exacting in his requirements for the libretto. One of the striking features of the opera is its imaginative and effective incorporation into the text of the nursery rhymes ‘Lavender’s Blue’ and ‘Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son’ as well as the brief quotation from W.B. Yeats’s poem ‘The Second Coming’ which was written in 1919 and published in 1921. The Latin words used during the lesson in Act One, scene six are taken from schoolboys’ rhyming grammatical rules, which originally, according to Piper, were taken from B.H. Kennedy’s Latin Primer, and the rhyme ‘Malo’ from a Primer that belonged to her Aunt.
The adaptation of the novella into an opera obviously posed a number of difficulties. For example, in the novel, after a general introduction, the story is predominantly told in the first person; the Governess is the narrator. James establishes an ambiguity about whether the narrator actually does see the ghosts or whether they are just figments of her overactive imagination. Between them, Britten and Piper had to transform the Governess’s thoughts and imaginings about what she sees or thinks she sees into characters whose stories engage the audience’s sympathy. It was Piper who had to contend with the problem of turning the ghosts of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel into characters. Neither of them speaks in James’s novel but in the opera they not only speak but also engage in dialogue together. Composer and Librettist obviously needed to confer about thorny problems such as this, a difficulty that was compounded by distance and the fact that Myfanwy had four young children: the Pipers were based in Oxfordshire, and Britten in Suffolk. Many such issues were overcome by post. Myfanwy had to organize writing the libretto around family commitments and send various scenes (sometimes re-written) to the composer as she completed them. The correspondence that dates from this time, which is kept in the archive of the Britten–Pears Library, reveals a progressive and intelligent working partnership. Of course Piper also made trips to Aldeburgh to discuss the progress of the opera in person, and in this way they dealt with a number of problems such as whether to include a prologue, the question of making a new title for the opera (or keeping the original title of the novella), the correct phrasing of certain lines and the re-phrasing of material found in James’s story.
The opera is a reinterpretation of Henry James’s original story. However, it stands as a work of art in its own right. Britten and Piper recount the Governess’s experiences through music, depicting her anxiety over how and if she is able to save the children from the ghosts’ malevolent influence. Britten’s orchestrations create images as diverse as the quiet of the Essex countryside, the chiming of church bells and the mystery of a Quint’s appearance. The coupling of music with Myfanwy Piper’s libretto adds new dimensions the characters that James created.
The Turn of the Screw was the first of three occasions on which Britten and Piper worked together. They collaborated on an adaptation of James’s short story Owen Wingrave in 1969-70 and again on Thomas Mann’s novel Death in Venice, which proved to be Britten’s final work for the operatic stage, in 1971-72.
Synopsis
Britten’s opera is made up of a Prologue and two acts; each act is divided into eight scenes. There are also fifteen variations which are played by the chamber orchestra during changes of scene. The mood established in each of these variations both sets the scene and establishes the atmosphere for the succeeding stages of drama.
Prologue
'The Prologue’ tells us of a story that he has read about a Governess who is entrusted with the education of two children by their Guardian Uncle. She is to look after them but is told quite firmly that she is to be responsible for everything and not to worry him at all.
Act One
Scene one (‘The journey’), preceded by the first variation, begins with the Governess travelling warily by coach to Bly, the country house where the action of the story takes place. In scene two (‘The welcome’) she establishes a friendship with the children, Miles and Flora, and the housekeeper Mrs Grose. Variation II prepares us for the excitement of the Governess’s arrival with the children and Mrs Grose assembling on stage, preparing to meet her. However, in the following scene (‘The letter’) a sense of unease begins to infiltrate the opera when the Governess receives a letter stating that Miles has been dismissed from his school. The letter informs her that he is ‘an injury to his friends’. Despite being told of the danger he might pose neither she nor Mrs Grose believe that he can be bad. The point is emphasised in a duet in which they agree that the letter is ‘a wicked lie’ and decide to do nothing about it. To emphasise Miles’s innocence Britten, in a master stroke, has both children sing an arrangement of the nursery rhyme ‘Lavender’s blue’ in the background. But this idyllic scene foreshadows darker moments to come.
Scene from the Mariinsky Theatre production 2006
Variation III is a beautiful depiction by the orchestra, particularly by the woodwind, of nature on a still summer evening. In scene four (‘The tower’) the Governess feels quite at home at Bly. She has disregarded the letter from Miles’s school and even begins to wish that her employer could see how well she is doing. But things take a menacing turn when she is frightened by the sudden appearance of a strange man on the nearby tower. Variation IV prepares us for the Governess’s second sighting of this ghostly figure. It is militaristic in character with a snare drum introducing the children into scene five (‘The window’) who playfully (but at the same time mischievously) sing ‘Tom, Tom the Piper’s Son’. They play a game of chasing in the hall whilst riding a hobby horse but disappear when the Governess enters. She suddenly sees the man gazing at her through the window and describes him to Mrs Grose, recollecting vividly that he his ‘tall, clean-shaven … even handsome. But a horror!’ Mrs Grose tells her that he is Peter Quint, the master’s valet who was killed by a fall on the ice. Quint had the power to manipulate the children and Miss Jessel, the Governess’s late predecessor—‘he had ways to twist them round his little finger’.
Variation V is a fast paced fugue which anticipates the quick recital of Latin vocabulary that Miles and Flora practise. During scene six (‘The lesson’), the boy sings a curious, plaintive song, which is strange to the Governess. It is here that we begin to wonder whether Quint’s appearance has any connection with Miles’s supposed bad behaviour. This unearthly moment, where Miles sings to cor anglais accompaniment, is pivotal as it indicates the boy’s movement toward the path of corruption.
Scene from the Theatre de Champs-Elysees production, 2005
Variation VI reminds us of the earlier orchestral depiction of landscape in Variation III. The woodwind suggest a quiet, supposedly peaceful wandering of the Governess and Flora on the shore of a lake. The tension increases when, in scene seven (‘The lake’), the Governess begins to believe that they have both seen an apparition of Miss Jessel. The danger is mounting, and the Governess becomes increasingly aware of her inability to oppose the supernatural. Variation VII follows and acts as an introduction to Quint’s appearance to Miles in scene eight (‘At night’): the ethereal qualities of the celesta are associated with him. Miles is excited by the thought of secrets that Quint’s visit promises but the ghost’s potentially menacing nature is suggested when he informs the audience: ‘I am the hidden life that stirs/ When the candle is out’. We begin to wonder whether Quint’s appearance has any connection with Miles’s supposed bad behaviour. Miss Jessel also enters the scene; it is evident that she is still controlled by Quint and she joins him in arranging a secret meeting with Miles and Flora. The Governess and Mrs Grose enter the bedroom to see what is going on and why the children are out of bed. The act concludes with Miles’s chilling confirmation: ‘You see, I am bad. I am bad, aren’t I?’
Scene from the Pittsburgh Opera production, 2005
Act Two
The act opens with Variation VIII, beginning with the clarinet’s restatement of Quint’s calling to Miles at the conclusion of the first act. Act Two, scene one is entitled ‘Colloquy and soliloquy’ and it expands on the way in which Miss Jessel is brought under Quint’s power. They reveal that the children are in peril, that Quint’s power threatens to destroy them when they sing the phrase ‘The ceremony of innocence is drowned’. The librettist borrowed this line from W.B Yeats’s dark, apocalyptic poem The Second Coming, which depicts a Miltonic vision of sin corrupting the world. At the end of the scene the Governess enters to say that she feels the presence of evil. Variation IX is a pealing of bells. Despite the obvious connections with church, there is a good deal of dramatic irony here in that we have witnessed the children’s meeting with the ghosts and the progress of Miles’s dangerous journey toward corruption. Indeed, in scene two (‘The Bells’) the Governess begins to realize that Miles possesses a dangerous self-awareness. He questions her about his going back to school and talks of wanting to be with his ‘own kind’. The ambiguity here is whether he means he wishes to be in the company of boys his own age or if he now wants to join Quint. Frightened and alone, she considers leaving Bly while Flora, Miles and Mrs Grose are all in church.
Variation X leads into the Governess’s confrontation with her ghostly predecessor. In the following scene (‘Miss Jessel’) she senses the presence of Miss Jessel but her resolve to oppose the ghosts’ evil intent is now equally strong and she is determined to save the children. Variation XI features the alto flute and bass clarinet in sinister dialogue with one another, prefiguring a conflict as the Governess tells Miles in scene four (‘The bedroom’) that she has written to his Guardian but tries to assure him that she wants to help him. The candle in his bedroom suddenly goes out. In Variation XII and the scene that follows (‘Quint’) Quint is seen hovering and addresses Miles directly, urging him to steal the letter from the schoolroom desk.
Variation XIII is a display of virtuoso piano playing by Miles. During scene six (‘The Piano’) Flora and Miles distract the Governess and lull Mrs Grose to sleep while they are in the schoolroom. The Governess, beguiled by Miles’s playing suddenly realizes that Flora is gone (to meet Miss Jessel) and she awakens Mrs Grose. In Variation XIV the chamber orchestra joins Miles as he continues to play the piano. In scene seven (‘Flora’) the Governess and Mrs Grose discover that Flora has run to the lake. When they catch her up Flora is full of accusation saying ‘You’re cruel, horrible, hateful, nasty./ Why did you come here?’ and, pointing toward the Governess, announces ‘I hate her!’ As Mrs Grose takes Flora away the Governess believes that she has lost her, thus preparing for the climax which occurs in the final scene (‘Miles’). This is preceded by Variation XV, a chilling clash of sounds from the orchestra. Mrs Grose tells Miles that she and Flora are leaving. Now they are alone with the Governess, Quint warns Miles to beware of her. She tries to ask Miles about the letter and it soon becomes obvious that Miles is torn between making a confession and his allegiance to Quint. The Governess and Quint appear to play out a dangerous tug of war with Miles caught in the middle.
Scene from the original production, 1954
The ghost attempts to lure Miles away but the boy eventually shrieks ‘Peter Quint, you devil!’ and collapses. It seems that the Governess has triumphed and Quint bids the boy a reluctant farewell. Yet, in these last moments the Governess realizes, as the cor anglais accompanies her, that she is holding Miles’s lifeless body in her arms. She repeats a strain from his ‘Malo’ song and the opera ends with her admission: ‘What have we done between us? Malo Malo Malo Malo’.
The book and the libretto: recreating the ghost story in the opera
How successfully, we might ask, does the ghost story transfer from the printed page onto the stage? The tension mounts slowly but inevitably in Henry James’s novella, reaching its climax right at the very end. Britten and his librettist wanted to keep this tension in focus and recreate the danger that is posed to the safety of the Governess, Mile and Flora in their adaptation. So let us examine a strategy that they (especially Myfanwy Piper) used to keep the threat of danger alive.
The story in James’s novella is told in the first person. The Governess acts as the ‘unreliable narrator’, which is the provider of facts and details concerning the supposed possession of the two children from her point of view. The great strength of James’s writing is that he creates a convincing account of the Governess’s excitement, fear, confusion and despair to suggest that there is a great struggle occurring between the forces of good and evil. This is certainly aided by the eerie atmosphere provided by such devices as the requisite isolated house in the country where candles suddenly go out in the middle of the night. There is also the development of characterization of Miles and Flora who are in turn playful, mischievous and, eventually, especially in the case of Miles, sinister thus suggesting that the idea of possession by spirits is a distinct possibility.
Significantly, however, we may rely upon the narrator—the Governess—too much. As far as the novella is concerned the unfolding drama of the haunting of Bly is quite possibly one that is played out entirely in the Governess’s imagination. It is all part of the ambiguity of the mood that James has purposely constructed. In order to build an atmosphere of tension and fear, which is essential to a ghost story, he pays a good deal of attention to the narrator’s growing anxiety. We simply cannot know for certain whether it is all hallucination on her part, or a true and terrifying ordeal.
Of course the reader is willing to accept that Quint is stalking Bly and drawing Miles into danger. That is how a successful ghost story works; a vulnerable character faces peril at the hands of a malevolent spirit. The drama arises from the question of whether this character will survive or succumb to the spirit, a question that is usually left unanswered until the end of the narrative. In The Turn of the Screw we have a first-class example of the jeopardy faced by vulnerable characters; Miles’s safety is called into question but so too is the safety and sanity of the narrator. The more irrational and fearful the Governess becomes, the stronger the case our believing in the presence of ghosts. At the beginning of Act Two of the opera when she feels helpless and frightened by the threat of incidents and appearances that she cannot explain the Governess says: ‘Lost in my labyrinth which way shall I turn?’ Whether James intended the drama to be played out entirely within the narrator’s imagination or not, there is little doubt, as far as the reader is concerned, about the genuine fear that she experiences. And it is the potential danger brought about by the presence of the supernatural that keeps the spooky narrative alive.
Britten and Piper also believed in the power of the ghosts and their significance to making the Governess’s fear all the more realistic. They decided early on to make Quint and Miss Jessel an indispensable part of the opera. But how could the ghosts be presented on stage as speaking (or singing) characters while remaining true to James’s novella? Remember that the ghosts don’t utter a sound in the in the original story. It is possible that the ghosts could have woven in and out of the scenes while the Governess commented on their unexpected sudden appearance, but Britten and Piper wanted to integrate them into the drama and allow them to interact as characters rather than as mimes. The ghosts are no less a presence in James’s story because of their silence, but in the opera Piper enables them to describe their need to feed off the innocence of two unsuspecting children. It is appropriate that Quint’s first appearance on the Tower is accompanied by a melody played on the celesta, an instrument that conveys the mystical, silent menace of the character. Quint’s first words, however, are not spoken until four scenes later.
Piper, who obviously understood the nature of the ghost story well, succeeds in conveying the danger that Quint poses. In chapter 9 of James’s novella the Governess rises from her bed at a late hour to check on the children only to discover Flora absent from her bed and Miles on the lawn outside the house. Whilst crossing the landing on her way to Flora’s room, she encounters Quint. In this important scene she feels anguish, but not terror, and she describes him as ‘absolutely, on this occasion, a living, detestable, dangerous presence’. In the opera this episode equates with Variation VII (‘At Night’) in which Quint leads Miles away from his bed and out of doors. The self-knowing Quint also takes the opportunity to reveal himself to Miles. He makes full use of his command of language to bewilder a child with a free imagination:
Quint
I am all things strange and bold, The riderless horse Snorting and stamping on the hard sea sand, The hero-highwayman plundering the land. I am King Midas with gold in his hand.
Miles
Gold, O yes, gold!
Quint
I am the smooth world’s double face, Mercury’s heels Feathered with mischief and a god’s deceit. The brittle blandishment of counterfeit. In me secrets and half-formed desires meet.
Miles
Secrets, O secrets!
Miles latches on to key words in Quint’s rhymes, such as ‘gold’ and ‘secrets’, not realizing at all the danger that is connected with them. Yet Piper attaches just enough detail (through reference to the Midas legend and the mention of ‘half-formed desires’) to emphasize to the audience that a master charlatan is at work, and that the unsuspecting Miles should not befriend him.
The children have inhabited a rather closed world until now. The Governess has been informed that Miles is no longer welcome back at his school. He voices an apparent longing to return to what he terms as his ‘own kind’, but the sheltered, cut-off atmosphere at Bly has become his and Flora’s universe. The language that Piper uses to introduce Quint is a clever means of gently integrating the threatening figure of a ghost into this private world. The references she uses to illustrate Quint’s character are imbued with double meaning For instance, the mythical images—the hero-highwayman, King Midas—that Quint employs to identify himself are borrowed predominantly from tales told or read in the comfort of the Nursery. But they are tales that are surrounded with caution: the highwayman is both hero and rogue, whereas Midas’s gift of being able to turn everything into gold soon works against him. Quint also refers to himself as the ambiguous figure of Mercury; a messenger and a thief whose symbol is the caduceus, a wand that is decorated with wings as well as with two intertwining serpents. The highwayman, Midas and Mercury can all be seen either as figures of romance or danger.
Piper provides a more revealing and disturbing aspect of the threat that Quint poses at the beginning of Act Two. Quint and Miss Jessel engage in a colloquy and speak of their dependence upon one another, and upon the children.
Quint
I seek a friend-
Obedient to follow where I lead,
Slick as a juggler’s mate to catch my thought,
Proud, curious, agile, he shall feed
My mounting power.
Then to his bright subservience I’ll expound
The desperate passions of a haunted heart,
And in that hour
‘The ceremony of innocence is drowned’.
Miss Jessel
I too must have a soul to share my woe
Despised, betrayed, unwanted she must go
Forever to my joyless spirit bound
‘The ceremony of innocence is drowned’.
Quint and Miss Jessel
Day by day the bars we break,
Break the love that laps them round,
Cheat the careful watching eyes,
‘The ceremony of innocence is drowned’.
‘The ceremony of innocence is drowned’.
Quint’s quick, unknowable character is again reflected in the images that he calls up, but the danger that he poses becomes all the more apparent here. Quint craves a ‘friend’, but it is a friend whose complete subservience will be used to the full extent. Piper introduces the rather gruesome idea of Quint using such a friend to ‘feed’ his mounting power, to drain the friend of life. The focus of Quint’s attention in this respect is the vulnerable figure of Miles. The dream-bound figure of Miss Jessel responds to Quint, who rouses her from her ‘schoolroom dreams’, and it is not long before she reveals similar plans for Flora, to bind her to the chains of the afterlife.
A theme that runs throughout much of Britten’s music, from his setting of William Blake’s ‘O Rose Thou Art Sick’ as the Elegy in his Serenade of 1943 onward, is the way in which innocence and childhood are brought to an end; a condition that is often brought about harshly and abruptly. In The Turn of the Screw it is left to Quint and Miss Jessel to describe this moment, without any sense of nostalgia or affection. Piper achieves this by incorporating the line ‘The ceremony of innocence is drowned’ from WB Yeats’s ‘The Second Coming’. It is repeated to emphasise the danger that Flora and Miles face. When the two of them sing this line in unison it is to the accompaniment of Quint’s leitmotif, the melody with which Britten introduced him to both Miles and the audience. The romance of the hero highwayman and of Mercury is overwhelmed by tragedy as the ghosts promise nothing more for the children than joylessness and the ‘breaking’ of love. The quotation from Yeats’s poem adds a new dimension to the story, highlighting the ghosts’ significance to the theme of lost innocence. The repetition of that one line emphasises the thought that something wonderful is suddenly replaced by the realization that, in fact, everything is lost, a point that is made again at the end of the novella and the opera with Miles’s sudden death.
The Turn of the Screw thus concludes with our worst fears confirmed. A vulnerable and hitherto innocent character is made to suffer at the will of the supernatural. Miles’s death is the climax of the story and it occurs, fittingly, at the conclusion of both the book and the opera. The Governess’s final words suggest a sharing out of guilt between her and the ghosts for Miles’s fate. But the remaining question of whether she accepts complicity over Miles’s death or whether she is implying that the blame rests with Quint is in keeping with the ambiguities and uncertainties that are a trademark of this masterful ghost story.
First performance
The Turn of the Screw was first performed by the English Opera Group on the 14th of September 1954 at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice as part of the biennial International Festival of Contemporary Music. The Cast for this production was:
The Prologue/ Peter Quint: Peter Pears
The Governess: Jennifer Vyvyan
Miles: David Hemmings
Flora: Olive Dyer
Mrs Grose: Joan Cross
Miss Jessel: Arda Mandikian
The English Opera Group Orchestra:
The producer was Basil Coleman, the scenery was designed by John Piper and the Technical Advisor was Michael Northen. The first performance was conducted by the composer who dedicated his new work to the English Opera Group. The EOG and EOG Orchestra were also responsible for the first UK performance, on the 6th of October 1954 at Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London.
Recordings
CD recordings
1955, Decca. The Turn of the Screw was the first of his operas that Britten conducted and recorded. The original EOG cast and orchestra recorded the work.
1983, Philips. Performed by Philip Langridge (Prologue), Robert Tear (Quint), Helen Donath (Governess), Heather Harper, (Miss Jessel), Ava June (Mrs Grose), Michael Ginn (Miles), Lilian Watson (Flora). Royal Opera House Orchestra conducted by Colin Davis.
2002, Virgin Classics. Performed by Ian Bostridge (Prologue/ Peter Quint), Jane Henschel (Mrs Grosse), Joan Rodgers (Governess), Vivien Tierney (Miss Jessel), Julian Leang (Miles), Caroline Wise (Flora). The Mahler Chamber Orchestra conducted by Daniel Harding.
2003, Naxos (originally released on the Collins Classics label, 1994). Performed by Philip Langridge (Prologue/ Peter Quint), Eileen Hulse (Flora), Felicity Lott (Governess), Nadine Secunde (Miss Jessel), Phyllis Cannan (Mrs Grose), Sam Pay (Miles). The Aldeburgh Festival Ensemble conducted by Steuart Bedford.
DVD recordings
2001. A joint production of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and the Cologne Opera for the 1990 Schwetzinger Festspiele. Helen Field (Governess), Menai Davies (Mrs Grose), Richard Greager (Peter Quint), Phyllis Cannan (Miss Jessel), Machiko Obata (Flora), Samuel Linay (Miles). Stage director, Michael Hampe; Set designer, John Gunter; Director for Video and Television, Claus Viller. The Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Steuart Bedford.
Special features include a six-minute introduction to the opera and an eight-minute promotional trailer. Subtitled in English, French and Spanish.
2005. BBC. Mark Padmore (Peter Quint), Lisa Milne (Governess), Catrin Wyn Davies (Miss Jessel), Diana Montague (Mrs Grose), Nicholas Kirby Johnson (Miles), Caroline Wise (Flora).
City of London Sinfonia conducted by Richard Hickox. TV Director Katie Mitchell, TV Producer Fiona Morris. Extras includes spoken synopsis and cast gallery.
2005. Bel Air Classiques BAC008. Mireille Delunsch (Governess), Marie McLaughlin (Miss Jessel), Gregory Monk (Miles), Nazan Fikret (Flora), Hanna Schaer (Mrs Grose), Marlin Miller (Peter Quint), Olivier Dumait (Prologue). Mahler Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Harding. Producer, Richard Peduzzi; Video Director, Vincent Bataillon.
2006. Eilene Hannan, Margaret Haggart, Anson Austin, Wendy Dixon
The West Australian Symphony Orchestra / David Stanhope. Opus Arte.
Some suggested further reading
John Bridcut, Britten’s Children, Faber, 2006
Basil Coleman, ‘Staging First Productions 2’ in (David Herbert, ed.) The Operas of Benjamin Britten. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1979, pp. 34-43.
Leon Edel, Henry James, A Life. London: HarperCollins, 1996.
Michael Halliwell, Opera and the Novel: The Case of Henry James. Rodopi: Amsterdam and New York, 2005.
Clifford Hindley, The Musical Quarterly, Vol. lxxiv/1 (1990), `Why does Miles die? A Study of Britten's The Turn of the Screw', pp. 1-17.
Patricia Howard (ed.) Benjamin Britten, The Turn of the Screw, CambridgeOpera Handbooks. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
Wilfred Mellers, ‘Turning the Screw’ in (Christopher Palmer, ed.) The Britten Companion. London: Faber and Faber, 1984, pp. 144-152.
Donald Mitchell, ‘The Turn of the Screw: A Note on its Thematic Organization’, Monthly Musical Record, 85, (May 1955), pp. 95-100.
Myfanwy Piper, Synopsis note in the Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts programme book, 1955, p. 21 (reprinted in the 1983 programme book, pp. 28-29).
–––––––––––––, ‘Some Thoughts on the Libretto of The Turn of the Screw’, (Anthony Gishford, ed.) A Tribute to Benjamin Britten on his Fiftieth Birthday. London: Faber and Faber, 1963, pp. 78-83.
–––––––––––––, ‘Writing for Britten’ in (David Herbert, ed.) The Operas of Benjamin Britten. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1979, pp. 8-21.
Erwin Stein, ‘The Turn of the Screw and its Musical Idiom’, Tempo, 34, (Winter 1954-1955), pp. 6-14.
Mansel Stimpson, The Opera Quarterly, Vol. 4, (1986) ‘Drama and Meaning in The Turn of the Screw’, pp. 75-82.
See also:
Britten’s Children, a film about Britten’s friendships and working relationships with young people, which includes comments from Basil Coleman and Colin Graham about working with the composer on the premiere of The Turn of the Screw. There is also an interview with David Hemmings who sang the role of Miles in the original production. BBC Television/ Mentorn, 2004. Executive Producer/ Writer/ Director, John Bridcut.
The Innocents directed by Jack Clayton, starring Deborah Kerr, Peter Wyngarde, Megs Jenkins, Michael Redgrave, Martin Stephens, 1961.
Explore an animated timeline of Britten's life