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Oral history: creating the opera
During the 1983 Aldeburgh Festival, five of the people closely involved in the creation of The Turn of the Screw came together for a forum discussion in the Festival Gallery, chaired by Donald Mitchell. Taking part were: the opera's librettist, Myfanwy Piper; her husband, John Piper, who designed the production; the producer, Basil Coleman; Joan Cross, who created the role of Mrs Grose; and Peter Pears, the original Quint and Prologue.
These clips range across topics from planning the structure of the work to a technical hitch with the first-night broadcast that tested the patience of the audience at La Fenice.
Oral history: creating the opera
A forum discussion from the 1983 Aldeburgh Festival
During the 1983 Aldeburgh Festival, five of the people closely involved in the creation of The Turn of the Screw came together for a forum discussion in the Festival Gallery, chaired by Donald Mitchell. Taking part were: the opera's librettist, Myfanwy Piper; her husband, John Piper, who designed the production; the producer, Basil Coleman; Joan Cross, who created the role of Mrs Grose; and Peter Pears, the original Quint and Prologue.
These clips range across topics from planning the structure of the work to a technical hitch with the first-night broadcast that tested the patience of the audience at La Fenice.
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ToS 1983 forum - Myfanwy Piper on how the structure of the opera came about
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ToS 1983 forum - Myfanwy Piper on last-minute changes to the libretto
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ToS 1983 forum - Basil Coleman on rehearsing the opera in Thorpeness
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ToS 1983 forum - Joan Cross and Peter Pears on first-night delays
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ToS 1983 forum - Myfanwy Piper on whether Mrs Grose saw the ghosts