CLASSICAL
The Turn Of The Screw Garsington Opera, Buckinghamshire Until July 18
The last opening night of this extremely rewarding season at Garsington is a first-rate revival of Louisa Muller’s awardwinning 2019 production of Benjamin Britten’s spooky The Turn Of The Screw.
Premiered in Venice in 1954, it is regarded by some as tricky, so bringing it back after only three years, it was no surprise there were some empty seats.
Those who fancy a last-minute visit should enquire about the availability of seats for the remaining performances: today, Friday and Monday week.
After all, some Britten aficionados regard The Turn Of The Screw as his greatest operatic achievement.
If anything, this revival is even better sung than the original offering. This notwithstanding the fact that Susan Bickley was obliged by illness to step aside from the pivotal role of the housekeeper Mrs Grose. She was replaced by the prodigiously talented Carolyn Holt, who made light of the fact that Mrs Grose is normally sung by a veteran. She was well matched by an outstanding role debut from Verity Wingate as The Governess, whose experiences with the children and the ghosts of previous servants depicted in the opera either really do happen or are due to her over-vivid imagination.
Robert Murray is fast becoming one of England’s most distinguished character tenors, and he excels both as the Prologue and one of the ghosts, Peter Quint. Helena Dix is outstanding as the other ghost, Miss Jessel, while the children (in this performance Maia Greaves and Ben Fletcher) are both extremely well drilled by the director, and really musical.
In the pit, Mark Wigglesworth gets some edgily eloquent playing from a section of the Philharmonia.
I love The Turn Of The Screw, and have made a point during my now sadly extensive opera-going career of seeing every production that has come my way. It’s therefore meant to be high praise to assert, as I do, that I have never seen it better done than here.
Louisa Muller’s production tells the story in an admirably straightforward way, while Christopher Oram’s designs fit the eerie atmosphere extremely well.
A first-class evening in every way.