English National Opera will present the opportunity for audiences in London to experience a new production of Benjamin Britten’s masterpiece The Turn of the Screw based on Henry James’s ghost story, with seven performances at the London Coliseum between 11 and 31 October 2024.
In the words of Director and Designer Isabella Bywater, “The Turn of the Screw is a fascinating project. This psychological thriller is wonderfully observed and disturbing. The challenge is to tell the story, a ghost story, taking into account the possible unreliability of the witness, the governess, never named. Ambiguity is what makes it so unsettling.”
The Turn of the Screw follows the arrival of a young, unnamed governess at the imposing Bly House, following her employment as guardian to two orphaned children, Flora and Miles. Both seem deeply troubled by dark forces and her anxiety mounts as she begins to sense that ghostly presences haunt both the house and the children. Bywater presents this spine-tingling masterpiece through flashbacks from a psychiatric ward.
Henry James, when he came to correct the proofs of the story, which was serialised over 12 issues in 1898, said: “When I had finished them, I was so frightened that I was afraid to go upstairs to bed.”
The original story by Henry James of The Turn of the Screw has inspired numerous adaptations for stage and screen including the Broadway stage production, The Innocents, directed by Harold Pinter (1950), the film The Innocents (1961) directed by Jack Clayton starring Deborah Kerr and Michael Redgrave, and more recently the Netflix mini-series The Haunting of Bly Manor, an adaption by Mike Flanagan (2020).
Britten’s opera, with a libretto by the British art critic and writer Myfanwy Piper, is regarded by many as the finest of his stage works. It was originally commissioned by the Venice Biennale where it received its world premiere at La Fenice in September 1954, conducted by the composer, in a production by English Opera Group and then presented to London audiences three weeks later at Sadler’s Wells Theatre. ENO first staged The Turn of the Screw in 1979 at the London Coliseum with acclaimed Director, Jonathan Miller.
This new production starring Irish soprano Ailish Tynan, is directed and designed by Isabella Bywater and will be conducted by Duncan Ward (Charlotte Corderoy, 29 & 31 October), making his ENO debut.
