Britten's The Turn of the Screw

The plot of The Turn of the Screw truly is as described in the opera’s Prologue a “curious story”. An isolated manor in the English countryside, a faithful old chambermaid, two young orphans and a new governess filled with enthusiasm, sent from London to take care of them. But nothing is as it seems in the protected world of Bly...

Directed by Jakub Hrůša, Musical Director of Glyndebourne on Tour, Jonathan Kent’s strangely disturbing production was filmed at the Glyndebourne Festival in 2011. The staging updates Henry James’ late-Victorian ghost story to the postwar England in which Britten composed the opera, a choice that, as put by Martin Kettle in The Gaurdian “is very effective, underlining that Britten, not James is the evening’s presiding spook”. With the score realized by an assured cast of soloists, supported by the London Philharmonic under Edward Gardner, the production serves up a shiver-inducing evening of insidious musical mystery.

Photo: © Alastair Muir / Glyndebourne Festival Opera 2011