TURN OF THE SCREW The Australian

Mazy Tale Of Children And Ghosts

By Peter Burch, 13 July 2010

WRITTEN in 1898 for the magazine Collier’s Weekly, Henry James’s Gothic fiction The Turn of the Screw was adapted into an opera by Benjamin Britten in 1954 in response to a commission from the Venice Biennale.

With a cast of six singers and thirteen musicians, The Turn of the Screw faithfully retells James’s novella to heightened effect and has emerged as one of Britten’s most powerful and popular chamber operas.

By staging it in the Arts Centre’s 850seat Playhouse, which lost a few rows to accommodate the orchestra, Victorian Opera brought the performance to the audience with extraordinary effect.

Making his VO debut, conductor Paul Kildea directed an eloquent musical ensemble drawn from Orchestra Victoria. He drew out every nuance of Britten’s score while his players, both individually and collectively, performed with distinction.

Director Kate Cherry’s memorable previous work with the VO includes the richly deserved multi award-winning 2008 Coronation of Poppea. Cherry prepared a fluid and satisfying staging. The apparent seamlessness of The Turn of the Screw’s structure - a prologue and 16 scenes over two acts - generated an unstoppable energy and tension.

She was materially assisted by Christina Smith’s beautifully simple set and elegant Victorian costumes, Matt Scott’s hauntingly atmospheric lighting and Fiona Battersby’s choreography.

James Egglestone had the dual tasks of delivering the Prologue, then performing as the evil Peter Quint, and echoed many of the special qualities of the role’s originator, Peter Pears; a fresh, clear, true voice, impeccable diction and a strong, threatening presence.

Singing powerfully, VO artist development program graduate Danielle Calder delivered an urgent and impressive portrayal of the new governess at Bly, an English country house. Her character was increasingly overwhelmed by an awareness of the malevolence in the air.

Maxine Montgomery gave a sympathetic performance as Mrs Grose, the housekeeper. Melanie Adams played Miss Jessell who, with her former lover Quint, seeks to corrupt innocence.

As the children, Georgina Darvidis’s Flora and Takshin Fernando’s Miles were able to switch from innocent childishness to ratcunning vulgarians as the influence of the ghosts of Quint and Miss Jessell exercised their control.

It ultimately gave effect to a chilling line borrowed from W. B. Yeats’ poem The Second Coming: “The ceremony of innocence is drowned.”

In her frenzy to protect the children, the governess and Quint struggle to possess Miles who finally screams, “Peter Quint, you devil”, as he collapses dead, in the governess’s arms.