There are only six characters: the governess herself, sung by soprano Elizabeth Caballero, the housekeeper Mrs.
Wavering water below swaying trees indicates a lake an outline of the house opens as needed in the middle, for a staircase and railing to rise to a landing, and windows which slide sideways to show Quint or Jessel exerting their will on the children. The lighting is dim bluish twilight, as it is almost throughout the opera, except for spotlights on the action itself. The images-train and station, swaying trees, the house itself-are all intentionally a little dreamlike, a little fuzzy around the edges. The projected scenery, designed by Adam Larsen and enhanced by Connie Yun’s lighting, sets the mood as well as the setting, starting with the governess’ journey to the house. Stage director Peter Kazaras has masterminded a brilliant conception and production. The children show some odd traits, also unnerving, and Miles is particularly remote.īut is all this just in the governess’s head? Are the children actually possessed? Are they being used as puppets by a malevolent Quint? The truth, the reality is never clear. As the governess grows to love the children, she gradually comes to believe there are two phantoms that seem to have manipulative power over them: the master’s ex-valet, Peter Quint, now dead, and the children’s previous governess, Miss Jessel, also dead. Then, an apparition of a strange man in a tower window unnerves the governess. Then a letter arrives expelling Miles from his school for undefined behavior injurious to others, which mystifies both the housekeeper and governess, who decide it can’t possibly be true. The children’s guardian, who hired the governess, informs her that doesn’t want to be bothered about anything-everything is in her hands.Īt first, the two children seem sweet and charming.
Are all the events in the mind of the newcomer?īriefly, the tale is of a young governess hired to live in a remote country house to watch over two children, Miles and Flora, who live there with just an elderly housekeeper. Benjamin Britten’s opera The Turn of the Screw, being presented now by Seattle Opera, carries the same ambiguities as the Henry James story on which it’s based, the same shivery uncertainties, the same feeling of the ground moving under your feet.
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