Britten’s ‘Turn of the Screw’ at the Linbury

Benjamin Britten’s Turn of the Screw, based on a Henry James novella, should leave its audience unsure whether the ghosts are real or figments of the governess’s imagination. She has been hired to care for two orphans, Miles and Flora living at a large country house, after the former governess Miss Jessel (Kate Royal) has died. So has the manservant Peter Quint (Elgan Llyr Thomas). The young governess (Isabelle Peters) is determined to be a calming influence on children who have suffered great loss, but the ghosts of Quint and Jessel play havoc with her good intentions. The two ghosts seem to have once been in a relationship with one another, driven by the manipulative Quint whom the housekeeper Mrs Grose (Claire Barnett-Jones) never liked or trusted. But are the ghosts real or figments of the young governess’s imagination?

A good production should leave this question unanswered, though it may hint strongly one way or the other. Unfortunately this, in the Royal Opera’s Linbury Theatre, was not. It never really posed the question, never allowed the ambiguity to enhance the mystery. And having two Peter Quints and two Miss Jessels only served to create confusion. The directors (Natalie Abrahami and Michael Levine) seem to have invested their energies in creating a darkly lit air of mystery, replete with flashbacks, that featured a translucent front drop on which images could be projected. Out of the darkness figures appear, but these were sometimes stage hands dressed in the same outfits as the performers, and everyone had to slosh around in water. Quint even kicked it up to make a mess an encouraged Miles to do the same.

The directors seem to have been more interested in recreating an atmosphere of marginal child abuse, in keeping with the modern Zeitgeist, but it didn’t serve Britten’s opera half as well as other productions I have seen, notably one at Garsington in 2024. Ambiguity is the essence of this opera — do the ghosts of Quint and Miss Jessel really manipulate the children, or are they figments of the Governess’s imagination? Having her dressed identically to the two ghosts of Miss Jessel does not really help address the ambiguity that is essential to this opera.

For that and the spookiness of this work we had to rely on Britten’s music, sensitively played by the small orchestra of 13 players under the baton of Bassem Akiki, with excellent singing from the whole cast, including Phoenix Matthews as Miles and Emilia Blossom Ostroumoff as Flora.

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