Although Benjamin Britten’s chamber opera The Turn of the Screw is performed regularly around the world and even enjoyed a successful run in Adelaide in 2022, it has not been seen live in Melbourne for many years until IOpera’s “A Season of Opera in English” at the Athenaeum.
Based on the 1898 Gothic novella by Henry James, Britten’s 1954 adaptation, with a libretto by Myfanwy Piper, harnesses the ambiguity and shifting realities of James’s original, written when Spiritualism, Ouija boards and communing with the dead were popular. Perhaps those who read the novella when published would have been inclined to take events more at face value than modern audiences. Belief in the afterlife and its mysteries still captures the imagination, but our response to the corruption of innocence has assumed new resonance even since Britten’s time. The interpretation presented in this production of his opera raises uncomfortable questions on several levels as new sources of social tension emerge regarding child abuse and trans rights.
As in the case of Hamlet, the nature and function of ghostly apparitions have been pondered by the work’s characters and audiences for years. Some productions of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw have even been set in an asylum, with the central character of the Governess presented as being either traumatised by events, simply deluded or both. IOpera’s version began with what appeared to be a session between a psychoanalyst and his young female patient. As the audience entered, the two chatted amicably until the lights were dimmed and the patient’s quiet sobbing could be heard. It became the framework for the action.
The psychoanalyst served as Britten’s Prologue, the narrator who sets the scene for the horror story of a young Governess engaged by a distant guardian to care for his two young wards, Flora and Miles. In the triple roles of Prologue, Peter Quint and director, Robert Macfarlane has taken on a significant challenge. Like Opera Melbourne, IOpera has provided outstanding productions without any government financial support.
With limited means, it has required some ingenuity on Macfarlane’s part to establish the eerie atmosphere integral to this ghost story. The 13-member orchestra took up most of the stage while the action mainly unfolded below in front of the steeply raked seating. Centre-stage, conductor, Peter Tregear, wore a white shirt (reflecting the costume design style), which further disturbed the atmospherics. Fortunately, Anton Brouwer’s lighting design and the engaging vitality of the performers drew the focus where it should be. Even during the 15 orchestral Variations the focus on the narrative was maintained, often through the device of a small television set that showed video footage, devised by Macfarlane, to illustrate some of the action. Unlike the expansive projected backgrounds of some productions, the visual content was much smaller in scale, but in keeping with the modest production values, and was generally effective.
In the central role of the Governess, Elena Xanthoudakis was compelling in the intensity of her vocal and dramatic performance. In such a small space, the operatic power of her voice accentuated her distress as she sought to save the children from the corrupting influence of the dead pair, Peter Quint and their former governess, Miss Jessel.
Roberta Diamond and Breanna Stuart were surprisingly convincing as the children, working together as a credible pair. Miles and Flora are substantial roles with Miles in particular having a great deal to sing – a requirement that few children would be able to fulfill easily. Diamond is small and lithe, and her high soprano voice resonant. What was striking about the quality of her voice was its increasing similarity to certain distinctive qualities of Xanthoudakis’s vocal production – a kind of mirroring of the sound in its strength, tone and style. Whether this was deliberate was unclear, but it gave added weight to this production’s ending, where roles have been crucially reversed.
The role of the housekeeper, Mrs Grose, provides an oasis of comparative sanity in this erotically charged story of hauntings and disturbing events. Amanda Windred gave a vocally and dramatically satisfying performance, conveying the warmth of a basically nurturing character. There were moments of great natural beauty in her strong soprano voice.
Macfarlane’s tenor voice was well suited to his roles. There were even shades of a less-dry-sounding Peter Pears present at times and, as with all the singers, a concerted effort was made to deliver the text with clear diction.
Lee Abrahmsen – a soprano with a voice of sumptuous dimensions – was riveting as Miss Jessel. Although the orchestral Variation that opens Act 2 featured an encounter between Peter Quint and Miss Jessel that might have been unnecessarily graphic for some members of the audience, it illuminated the plight of the former governess and added impact to the distress Abrahmsen conveyed so tellingly.
Less obvious was why Act 1 ended with loud knocking on the door to the theatre, followed by the entry of a confrontational actor with a wild mane of hair. Repeatedly quoting a phrase from the beginning of Act 2, “The ceremony of innocence is drowned”, the actor continued to eyeball the audience as the musicians left the stage, seeming to challenge us to consider what other forms of innocence may have been lost in the here-and-now.
What chiefly created the unsettling emotionally charged atmosphere was, of course, Britten’s music. Along with notable experienced virtuosi such as Peter de Jager (piano/celeste) and Melina van Leeuwen (harp), the chamber orchestra under Peter Tregear gave a very creditable performance of a musically demanding score.
With an intriguing story, inspired music, imaginative direction that gives us much to ponder, plus some fabulous singing, IOpera’s production of The Turn of the Screw has provided a rare opportunity that should not be missed.
Photo supplied.
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Heather Leviston reviewed “The Turn of the Screw”, presented by IOpera at the Athenæum 2 on September 17, 2025.
