Turn of the Screw

Britten's ingenious score requires only 13 players, some handling more than one instrument. As in his earlier opera Peter Grimes, Britten uses the orchestra's interludes to weave the story together, beautiful and troubling on the surface and at the same time intellectually complex below it (a theme and 15 variations, it is Britten's first use of a 12-tone row). Maazel's orchestra was composed of undergraduate or graduate students from the Juilliard School, recommended by the principal players of the New York Philharmonic, where Maazel is music director. Except for very rare dropped notes in the strings and one or two minor splats in the French horn, they gave an extraordinary performance, especially the complicated woodwind solos and the supernatural celesta.

The cast was just as admirable, with dramatically charged and vocally superlative performances from tenor Jeffrey Lentz (both the Prologue and the evil Peter Quint) and Michelle Rice (the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose). Valerie Komar was a sexy Miss Jessel, the ghost of the former governess, a schoolmarm turned vixen in hell with a rich voice to match. Anne Dreyer brought a reserved dignity to the role of the Governess, with a pearly tone that convinced the audience of her innocence.

The children's roles were remarkably well sung by two ninth-graders from Connecticut, Tucker Fisher (whose voice, perhaps appropriately for Miles, seemed sometimes about to crack and change) and Jessica Moore (Flora). The troubling relationship of the ghosts to their corresponding children was well choreographed and acted (credit to director Barbara Eckle and choreographer Abigail Levine). In the final scene, when at the Governess' insistence Miles finally shouts out his tormentor's name -- "Peter Quint!" -- all that built-up tension is finally released at the dramatic conclusion. The libretto makes clear that the couple molested the children when they were alive, and they are apparently condemned to repeat their sin as spirits. One may wonder about the centrality of boy characters and boy singers in Britten's music: British music critic Norman Lebrecht has recently published an article on the issue of Britten's ephebophilia. Britten created the role of Miles for one of his singer protegés, treble David Hemmings, who premiered the opera with Britten conducting, in Venice in 1954. After his voice break, Hemmings went on to have a career as an actor, notably in Antonioni's Blow Up and the sci-fi Barbarella with Jane Fonda.

Britten was a master of orchestral color by this point in his career, and he uses his small ensemble to produce an astonishing range of colors and sounds, from the lyrical and tender to the downright atonal and harsh. The tympani pound along in sections, representing the Governess' obsessive worries. The children sing a number of lovely folk and fairy tale melodies, which the orchestra ominously undercuts with dissonant sounds. Quint calls to Miles in his bed from off stage, with a cantillation of sinuous triplets, shifting deceptively to a dissonant note. There are any number of moments in this evil score that creep me out, like the scene on the way to church, where the children are singing a simple melody to the psalmic words "All creatures, bless the Lord." As the music turns sinister, the children begin twisting the words, without the adults noticing ("O ye dragons and snakes, worms and feathered fowl: Rejoice in the Lord.") There is also the penultimate scene, where Miles plays the piano. As Quint hovers over him, the music that sounds like a pretty Mozart sonata is obscured with malevolent dissonance. This is a score I never tire of hearing and do not have many opportunities to see staged. "O ye tombstones and trees: Praise him."