The Turn of the Screw

Ganz Hall at Roosevelt University:

425 S Wabash Ave, Chicago, IL 60605

A narrator enters and sets the scene: a written record of a chilling tale has been found. Within its pages, a timid young woman tells of becoming governess to two children at a mysterious country house called Bly. There is one unusual condition to her employment: she must never trouble the guardian and should handle everything by herself.

The governess’s initial anxiety subsides when she arrives at Bly and is greeted by the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose, and the children, Miles and Flora. Her positive feelings don’t last long, however; she learns that Miles has been expelled from his school after being deemed “an injury to his friends”. Her dread and fear increase when she repeatedly sees a mysterious man on the grounds.

After hearing the man’s description, a shocked Mrs. Grose identifies him as Peter Quint, the house’s former valet. Quint had seduced Miss Jessel, the children’s prior governess. Quint also had a troubling connection to Miles. Miss Jessel “went away to die” and Quint died shortly after. The governess concludes that they are now haunting the children of Bly, confirmed in the culmination of Act I when the ghosts attempt to lure the children to them.

As we learn more about Quint and Miss Jessel, and as the children increasingly slip away towards another realm, the governess decides she must write to their guardian regardless of her promise. However, she may have underestimated the power that Miss Jessel and Quint have over Flora and Miles, as well as whether a child can easily name their tormentor.

Like its spooky source material, the Henry James novella of the same name, The Turn of the Screw expertly builds dread in its audience. Myfanwy Piper’s libretto makes the existence of the ghosts undeniable, removing the psychological question of the governess’s own reliability, but Britten’s haunting twelve-tone “Screw” theme achieves the same effect musically by treading the line between tonality and atonality.

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Host or Publisher Chicago Summer Opera