| The Turn of the Screw | |
|---|---|
| Chamber opera by Benjamin Britten | |
&sq=Envato&lang=en&file=File:191001Turn_of_the_Screw118.jpg) Miss Jessel haunts Flora in the 2019 New Zealand Opera production | |
| Librettist | Myfanwy Piper |
| Language | English |
| Based on | The Turn of the Screw by Henry James |
| Premiere | 14 September 1954 Teatro La Fenice, Venice |
The Turn of the Screw is a 20th-century English chamber opera composed by Benjamin Britten, with a libretto by Myfanwy Piper,[1] based on the 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.[2]
It concerns a young, inexperienced governess sent to a country house to care for two children, whom she is gradually convinced have been corrupted by the ghosts of a previous manservant and governess. The drama grows increasingly tense, with a tragic outcome.
It was described by The Guardian as one of the most dramatically appealing of Britten's operas,[3] and by music professor Peter Evans as "Britten's most intricately organized opera".[4] It is in two acts of eight scenes each, with a prologue that ends with the introduction of a twelve-note 'Screw' theme. Each scene is preceded by a variation on that theme. Several other related leitmotifs occur through the opera. Typically of Britten, the music mixes tonality and dissonance.
- ^ "wife of the artist John Piper, who had been a friend of the composer since 1935 and had provided designs for several of the operas" in Holden 2001, p. 128
- ^ Kennedy, Michael, "Benjamin Britten", in Holden 2001, p. 128
- ^ Maddocks, Fiona (20 August 2011). "Top 50 Operas". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
- ^ Evans 1979, p. 222.