The Turn of the Screw by Benjamin Britten, English National Opera; The Coliseum, London WC2,

4☆☆☆☆. Review: Clare Colvin.

“Was the Governess to be trusted as ghost hunter?”

Ever since Henry James’s creepy novella on the haunting of two children by malevolent ghosts was published there’s been a debate on whether the story was  meant to be a supernatural tale, or whether it was all in the mind of the mentally disturbed Governess in charge of the orphans.   The director and designer of English National Opera’s new production of Britten’s opera, Isabella Bywater, is in no doubt at all.   Not only is the Governess insane, according to Bywater, but she has been locked up in a psychiatric hospital for the last 30 years, and the whole story is seen through  her fevered recollection of the events of the haunting.   In fact, through the way that Bywater directs, that is, overlaying the solid stage and the real life characters with video images, you feel as if you’re seeing into the mind of a mad person.   This may heighten the drama, but loses the narrative flow as sometimes it is hard to tell what is going on.

Bywater argues  her case strongly, using the prevalent technical effects of mingling what is solidly seen on stage with projected images.  One moment Ailish Tynan’s anxious Governess  may be reclining on her hospital bed, as projected images flow over the surface of Bly Manor;  The images are impressive, such as the lake that floods into extensive water meadows when the Governess  believes she sees the previous governess beside the water.

The ghosts are more visible than usual. The ghost of Peter Quint, as seen by tenor Robert Murray, appears to be mopping the floor, as if he is actually a porter at a psychiatric hospital.  There’s a suggestion that Quint continues to abuse his fellow ghost Miss Jessel (Eleanor Dennis), by physically attacking Miss Jessel as well as focusing on the boy Miles, played by Jerry Louth, who has sung with Garsington Opera in a treble role.  Miles’s sister Flora is sung by soprano Victoria Nekhaenko, who had earlier sung as Clara in the ROH Massenet’s Werther.    Both of them exert the chilling effect of a child acting in self-defence against trauma.  Ailish Tynan as the Governess becomes eventually defeated by the increasingly hostile vibrations from the young persons, as well as the loss of confidence shown  by Mrs Grose the housekeeper (Gweneth Ann Rand). 

I don’t think the supernatural scare factor is increased notably by defining the Governess as being mad all along, and this is apt to happen when a supposedly supernatural being appears as all too solid flesh.  Even with the aid of videos, stage doesn’t have the-back-of-the neck edge that belongs to film.  In that case you have to rely on the edge of the composer’s score which in this case English National Opera under their new conductors Duncan Ward and Charlotte Corderoy have crisply brought to bear.

Conductor: Duncan Ward

Director and Designer: Isabella Bywater

Lighting designer: Paul Anderson

Projection designer: Jon Driscoll  

Leader: David Adams; Production