The Turn of the Screw Tickets

The score is dark and evocative. The plot is frightening. Revealed in flashback style from a psychiatric ward, a young governess is terrorised by unseen forces in a remote country house. This opera is unnerving every step of the way. Expect menacing stuff.

Why you should see The Turn of the Screw

• Benjamin Britten's innovative score meets the brilliant 1898 horror novella by Henry James.
• The Turn of the Screw's masterful blend of psychological depth and supernatural elements keeps audiences on the edge of their seats.

A frightening opera, not for the faint hearted

The story goes like this. A young, inexperienced governess is brought to a remote country house to look after two orphans. Both children are troubled, perhaps even possessed by some kind of demon or devil. The governess becomes more and more frightened as she hears strange sounds in the dead of night, a mysterious figure and a face at the window. Is she imagining it or is the threat real? With an ending described as ‘nerve shredding’, this opera isn’t for the faint hearted.

The team behind the magic

Isabella Bywater directed and designed the production, featuring Ailish Tynan as the governess. Miss Jessel and Peter Quint are sung by ex-English National Opera Harewood artist Eleanor Dennis, and Robert Murray. Duncan Ward and Charlotte Corderoy conduct on different dates, both making their ENO debut. Gweneth Ann Rand plays Mrs Grose and Alan Oke handles the Prologue. Paul Anderson is the Lighting Designer, Jon Driscoll is the Video Designer, and Myfanwy Piper is the Librettist.

Irish ENO soprano Ailish Tynan comes with impressive credentials. She won the 2003 Rosenblatt Recital Song Prize at BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, was a member of the Vilar Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and a BBC New Generation Artist. She has delighted audiences in a wide variety of operas including Gretel Hänsel und Gretel, Erste Dame Die Zauberflöte, Berta Il barbiere di Siviglia, Madame Cortese Il viaggio a Reims, Madame Podtotshina’s Daughter The Nose and many more.

About the opera

Henry James’ horror novella The Turn of the Screw was first serialised in a magazine, then published in a collection by Macmillan in New York and Heinemann in London. It was adapted to create an opera by Benjamin Britten, premiering during 1954. Since then the story has been recreated at least 16 times on film and TV. It was adapted into a ballet score in 1980 and again as a ballet in 1999.

Harold Pinter himself directed the story in 1950’s The Innocents, a Broadway play, and there have been numerous stage adaptations including an off-Broadway production in 1999 and a co-production with Hammer at the Almeida Theatre in 2013. The story never seems to grow old, as spooky as ever.

The Turn of the Screw is jam-packed with hauntingly beautiful music and intense performances, making it an unforgettable trip to the opera this Autumn.