The Turn of the Screw (Opera)

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Work data
Title: The Turn of the Screw,
The Sinful Angels or
The Taken
Original title: The turn of the screw
Set design for a student production at Brown University, 2000

Set design for a student production at Brown University , 2000

Shape: Chamber opera in a prologue and two acts
Original language: English
Music: Benjamin Britten
Libretto : Myfanwy Piper
Literary source: Henry James : The Turn of the Screw
Premiere: September 14, 1954
Place of premiere: Teatro La Fenice , Venice
Playing time: approx. 1 ¾ hours
Place and time of the action: Bly, an English country house, mid-19th century
people
  • Prologue ( tenor )
  • Governess ( soprano )
  • Miles, boy in her care ( boy soprano )
  • Flora, girl in her care (soprano)
  • Mrs. Grose, housekeeper ( mezzo-soprano )
  • Quint, former servant (tenor)
  • Miss Jessel, former governess (soprano)

The Turn of the Screw (German title: The Turn of the Screw , The sinful angels or Possessed ) is a chamber opera in a prologue and two acts by Benjamin Britten on the eponymous novel by Henry James . It was first performed on September 14, 1954 at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice.

action

prolog

A governess is commissioned to look after the two orphans Miles and Flora at the Bly country estate and to ensure that they are well brought up. Your client is the children's guardian who does not want to be bothered with these things.

first act

Despite the initial distance, the governess quickly befriends the two children. Soon after, Miles was expelled from school for bad behavior, according to a letter. The governess suddenly sees the shadowy apparitions of a man and a woman in the garden and in the manor house . The housekeeper, Mrs. Grose, concludes that it can only be Miss Jessel and Mister Quint, two former employees who had an excellent relationship with the children. The two were lovers and died mysteriously. It seems as if after their death they want to bring the children into their dependency.

Second act

The mysterious conspiracy between the children and the dead, taking on increasingly extreme forms, worries both Mrs. Grose and the governess. Despite directives to the contrary, you decide to inform your guardian of the events. Miles, however, has the letter disappear on instructions from the former servant Quint. Events come to a head, whereupon Mrs. Grose leaves the house and travels to London, taking Flora with her, despite her vehement resistance. The governess tries to get Miles to confess whose influence he is under. Quint tries to stop Miles from speaking. When the boy finally shouts out Quint's name, he collapses dead.

Remarks

Neither the original text nor the stage work give an interpretation of the plot that can be understood both as a ghost story and as a psychological study of the governess: it remains open what actually happens and what only happens in the mind of the educator.

Instrumentation

The line-up of the opera includes the following instruments:

Awards

The staging of Benjamin Schad in the Cologne Opera in the 2010/2011 season won the Götz Friedrich Prize for directing.

Web links

Commons : The Turn of the Screw (opera)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Julia Liebscher: The Turn of the Screw. In: Piper's Encyclopedia of Musical Theater . Volume 1: Works. Abbatini - Donizetti. Piper, Munich / Zurich 1986, ISBN 3-492-02411-4 , pp. 446-448.