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Written
by
Benjamin
Britten
Lyrics
Myfanwy Piper
Conductor
Garry Walker
Director
David McVicar
Design
Tanya McCallin
Conductor
Garry Walker
Lighting
Adam Silverman
Choreographer
Andrew George
Governess
Rebecca Evans
Prologue/Quint
Timothy Robinson
Miss
Jessel
Cheryl Barker
Mrs
Grose
Ann Murray
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London
Coliseum
English
National Ballet
26 Nov - 08 Dec 2007 |
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English
National Opera has been having
a bad time lately with one
poorly reviewed production
following another. This production
of Benjamin Britten's masterpiece
Turn
of the Screw
should bring that run of misfortune
to a rapid end. It is a triumph
on many levels.
Even Britten's detractors
concede the mastery of Turn
of the Screw.
Some find fault with Myfanwy
Piper's libretto in that it
makes visible and real the
ghosts in Henry James's novella,
and thus makes the opera's
central theme a battle between
good and evil. Peter Quint
and his accomplice Miss Jessel
are clearly out to seize the
souls of the children Miles
and Flora, whereas in James's
original is more ambiguous
with one persuasive reading
being that the ghosts are
in the new governess's mind
and that, perhaps inadvertently,
it is she who 'corrupts' the
children. What seems important
to remember is that what works
in literature may not work
in opera, which needs a strong
and visible plot. If just
ideas are the central concern,
then an opera can become no
more than a songfest in costume.
Britten and Piper were right
to decide that the battle
between conflicting moralities
should be dramatized as a
war between 'real' characters.
What they also manage to avoid
magnificently is the ridiculousness
of ghosts. Two hundred years
ago Gottfried Lessing in his
Hamburg
Notes
compared Voltaire's use of
a ghost in Semiramis
with
Shakespeare's in Hamlet
. He
accused Voltaire of putting
on the stage a metaphysical
nonsense and thus rendering
the play like a circus. Shakespeare,
on the other hand, he argued,
made Hamlet's father the voice
of Hamlet's conscience. He
might be as powerful if he
did not appear, but like Banquo
in Macbeth
, he
is most powerful when he can
only be seen by the person
whose life he intends to affect.
Ghosts for Shakespeare become
externalizations of inner
conflicts, and thus credible
on stage. The same is true
in the Britten/Piper adaptation
of Henry James's novella.
Without their realization
in post-life flesh the overwhelming
scene at the outset of Act
Two, with its famous lines
"the ceremony of innocence
is drowned" would lose
its gripping reality. The
personalizing of the ghosts
can also make the desperation
of Quint more clear when he
sings of his desire for "a
friend" - a kindred soul
- to whom he can "expound
that desperate passions of
a haunted heart." Miss
Jessel also speaks of her
"haunted spirit."
In the voices of Timothy Robinson
and Cheryl Barker this scene
exploded beyond the footlights.
This production of Turn
of the Screw
originated in St Petersburg
at the Mariinsky Theatre,
a good indication of the fact
the Britten, along with Richard
Strauss and Puccini, is one
of a select group of composers
(maybe only those three) whose
operas regularly and frequently
hold the international stage.
On the ENO stage this new
production by David McVicar
looks magnificent. The set
mingles autumn leaves with
odd items of furniture dotted
around the stage. An atmosphere
of decline, even despair pervades.
The end of hope is here, and
that is as it should be. I
thought the minimal, and silent
(thank goodness) movement,
of the staging worked very
well; the rapid shifting of
venue from one part of the
house or estate to another
being managed as well as Jonathan
Miller's wonderful production,
also at ENO. Much of the impact
of the Tanya McCallin's design
is due to Adam Silverman's
evocative lighting in which
the back of the stage is often
the most brightly lit leaving
the front of the stage, where
the main action takes place,
shrouded, and thus more menacing:
a visible manifestation of
the purport of the plot.
David McVicar's production
of the work is a triumph.
He succeeds right from the
start in maintaining the sense
of accelerating disaster that
lies at the heart of the opera.
The increasingly alarmed Governess,
the at-first complacent but
later agitated Mrs Grose and
the gradually growing presence
of Quint and Miss Jessel are
paced magnificently. this
is a production to keeps its
audiences on the edge of their
seats.
But an opera production is
nothing without the music-making,
and this was uniformly outstanding.
Rebecca Evans, whose vocal
approach to her role was more
legato and lyrical than some
others, which made the governess
less fussy and more cogently
the centre of approaching
catastrophe. Her voice and
acting magnificently paid
off at the end where she managed
to suggest in her embracing
of the dead Miles and her
enunciation of "what
have done between us?"
a scene as soul-searing as
the closing moments of Tristan
. It
was a truly moving moment,
magnificently sung.
Mrs Grose was well contrasted,
as she should be. Ann Murray's
vocal age and growing vibrato
were just right for the amiable
and, at first, blind housekeeper.
She too made the role grow
in intensity as she realizes
the truth of the Governess's
fears. Miles and Flora nearly
steal the show, but then the
'children' often do. Miles,
sung on the night I attended
by George Longworth, was a
match for the Governess from
the start, and his strong
voice and excellent declamation
made him seem from the start
half gone to Quint, though
the fight he puts up in the
course of the opera was yet
another of its dramatic excellencies.
Flora, sung by Nazan Fikret,
was his more than able companion,
both dramatically and vocally,
in the battle for their souls.
Timothy Robinson's Quint and
Cheryl Barker's Miss Jessel
are outstanding. In particular
Cheryl Barker's warm but penetrating
sound made her believable
both as a once innocent and
caring governess, who seduced
by the evil Quint, and as
the now menacing fury intent
on corrupting Flora. Both
vocally and dramatically she
makes a very telling antithesis
to her successor.
At first I was worried that
Timothy Robinson's Quint was
going to be too anemic, as
his first appearance at the
window had none of the blood-curdling
impact that Peter Pears's
did in the first production.
But as the opera developed
his apparently benign vocal
demeanour acquired menace
and edge, and by the time
he was in the ascendant for
Miles's soul he managed to
command the stage and all
who came into contact with
him.
Britten's opera is a chamber
opera, thus the every member
of the thirteen-person orchestra
is as essential as the singing
characters. I cannot think
when I have heard a better
performance by the orchestra.
William Lockhart's percussion
enhanced at every moment the
drama with a fine sense of
when to use his excellent
gradation of sonority and
volume. From the start Nicholas
Ansdell-Evans's pianism also
enriched the evening.
All the music, and thus the
pacing, sound and balance
of the performance was in
the hands of a newcomer to
ENO, Garry Walker. He was
a master, both musically and
dramatically (if these can
truly be separated). Both
his rhythmic precision and
excellent ear for just the
right sound for each dramatic
nuance never faltered. Let's
hope he will be back soon
as he seems to have a natural
flair for operatic pace and
sound, and an assured ability
to elicit from his players
and singers outstanding results.
This performance was truly
a night to remember.
Roderick Swanston |
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