Special thanks to Tiffany Ng for organizing the carillon pre-show performances.

Benjamin Britten (composer, 1913-1976) is the most important British composer since Henry Purcell nearly three centuries earlier. Works involving voice and text have consistently elicited Britten’s most powerful and creative responses. Peter Grimes (1945) marked a turning point in his fame and established him forevermore in the international opera world. Soon after, however, Britten began to write operas for more streamlined forces for practical and financial reasons. Albert Herring, Rape of Lucretia, The Turn of the Screw, and several operas for children are prominent among these chamber works. Since its premiere in 1954, The Turn of the Screw has been produced in eleven languages and has never spent a season out of the repertoire.

(Previously published in the program for the Unversity of Michigan production of The Turn of the Screw)

Myfanwy Piper (librettist, 1911-1997), born Mary Myfanwy Evans in London, was a British art critic and opera librettist. From 1935 to 1937, she edited the periodical Axis, which was devoted to abstract art. She married artist John Piper in 1937. Between 1954 and 1973 she collaborated with the composer Benjamin Britten on several of his operas and, between 1977 and 1981, with composer Alun Hoddinott on most of his operatic works. She was a friend of the poet John Betjeman, who wrote several poems addressing her, such as “Myfanwy” and “Myfanwy at Oxford.”

– Adapted from Wikipedia

Britten has organized the opera as a theme and variations. The theme, heard in the orchestra immediately after the prologue, is a sequence of twelve notes in a pattern based on the interval of a fourth. This fourth becomes synonymous with the world of Peter Quint, the ghosts, and the unreal world they inhabit. The world of innocence, in distinct contrast, is represented by traditional triadic harmony. Each act has eight scenes, each introduced by an orchestral variation on the theme. In addition, startling tonal opposites represent the contrast in the characters: the Governess and innocence have a minor (no sharps or flats) as a tonal center, while the Ghosts’ signature key is a-flat minor (many flats). In the opera’s last scene, these two keys are heard simultaneously as the struggle reaches its climax. Finally, Britten has chosen the celeste as the instrument to represent Peter Quint. Long before we meet him, and even when the text says otherwise, the sound of the celeste and the interval of a fourth tell us all is not what it seems.

(Previously published in the program for the University of Michigan production of The Turn of the Screw in xxxx)

manes (ˈmɑːneɪz, Latin ˈmɑːnɛs) pl. noun (sometimes capital) (in Roman legend)

British Dictionary
1. the spirits of the dead, often revered as minor deities
2. (functioning as singular) the shade of a dead person

Latin Dictionary
I. The deified souls of the departed, the ghosts or shades of the dead, the gods of the Lower World, infernal deities, manes (as benevolent spirits, opp. to larvae and lemurea, malevolent spirits).
B. Esp., the departed spirit, ghost, shade of a person

A group of strangers share stories around a fire on Christmas Eve in an old house. Quoting our narrator: “It’s not the first occurrence of its charming kind that I know to have involved a child. If the child gives the effect of another turn of the screw, what do you say to two children–?” “We say, of course, that they give two turns! Also that we want to hear about them.” And thus, a group of friends are invited to hear the strange tale and reach their conclusions.

We will hear a story with a libretto with some poignant alterations to the original work: the Latin lesson has words, the children sing, and the ghosts speak. Particular attention should thus be given to all those choices. Henry James leaves the story open on purpose, and yet there are two clear ways to read it; Britten adds a layer that may tilt you further, give you one more turn.

The opening of Act II begins with a colloquy of Quint and Jessel. “The Second Coming,” one of William Butler Yeats’s most famous poems, is quoted here:

“The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all convictions, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”

The nightmare Yeats presents feels strangely too close for comfort. He chose ambiguity, and Britten rides on it. James’s story appeared in serial format between January and April of 1898. We can only assume that current events affected the storytelling and its end. Long forgotten by now, 1898 was the year the US declared war on Spain. The destructive power of humankind had spread to new territories, and it was not uncommon to find people thinking about Armageddon. The threat of the First World War loomed.

Although the Governess seeks to save the children, we will witness their destruction. A question lingers: who is the corruptor and who is the corrupted? If corruption is qualified by a young governess full of doubts, is she qualified to be the judge? Quint seeks a friend. Mrs. Grose condemned that friendship. Does that make them “bad”? Rage comes only out of Jessel, as she seeks a soul to revenge betrayal. Souls may die with the best of intentions…

The truth is in the eye of the beholder, and when the story finishes, we should have more questions than when it started. When the candle is out, we should reach our conclusions. We must be passionate about our convictions, and yet, be open to change them. That may be the only way to move forward and not drown. We must choose our own paths: may they be strange and bold.

-Chía Patiño, stage director

Prologue
The story is found in the diary of a young governess and is read at a gathering of strangers in an inn by the person who possesses the diary now. The setting is Bly, a country house in England, to which the governess comes to take charge of two young children, Miles and Flora. We learn that she was engaged by the childrens’ uncle and guardian, under one condition: he was not to be bothered with any of their problems.

Act I
The situation seems at first to be happy and tranquil. When a letter arrives from Miles’s school announcing his expulsion, the governess decides to say nothing about it. Some time thereafter, she sees a strange man about the house – on a tower, and later on by the window – and from her description of him, Mrs. Grose, the housekeeper, identifies him as Peter Quint, a former manservant who has recently died. According to Mrs. Grose, both Quint and Miss Jessel (the former governess, also dead) exerted a bad influence over the children. On an outing with young Flora, the governess, seeing Miss Jessel by the lake, becomes convinced that the ghosts have returned to possess the children. She recruits Mrs. Grose as an ally in the struggle to protect them. But the true menace is not clear until the governess realizes that Miles and Flora are deceiving her with their songs and games.

Act II
Quint and Miss Jessel argue. The  governess feels lost. She is now sure that the children are in touch with the ghosts but cannot extract from either of them the confession she feels would save them. In horror at realizing that Miles knows as much as she does, or more, but unable to deal with the situation, the governess decides to leave Bly. Her impulse changes, however, when she sees Miss Jessel in the schoolroom, and she writes a letter imploring help from the children’s uncle. Miles’s dazzling display at the piano the next day gives his sister a chance to slip away. Flora is discovered by the lake and challenged to admit Miss Jessel’s presence; her outburst of hatred causes her to be removed to London by Mrs. Grose. After spending the night listening to Flora’s dreams pour out, the dubious housekeeper is enlightened. Left alone with Miles, the governess forces him to confess that he has stolen her letter. Quint reappears to battle for the boy’s soul.

Anishinaabeg gaa bi dinokiiwaad temigad manda Michigan Kichi Kinoomaagegamig. Mdaaswi nshwaaswaak shi mdaaswi shi niizhawaaswi gii-sababoonagak, Ojibweg, Odawaag, minwaa Bodwe’aadamiig wiiba gii-miigwenaa’aa maamoonjiniibina Kichi Kinoomaagegamigoong wi pii-gaa aanjibiigaadeg Kichi-Naakonigewinning, debendang manda aki, mampii Niisaajiwan, gewiinwaa niijaansiwaan ji kinoomaagaazinid. Daapanaming ninda kidwinan, megwaa minwaa gaa bi aankoosejig zhinda akiing minwaa gii-miigwewaad Kichi-Kinoomaagegamigoong aanji-daapinanigaade minwaa mshkowenjigaade.

The University of Michigan is located on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe people. In 1817, the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Bodewadami Nations made the largest single land transfer to the University of Michigan. This was offered ceremonially as a gift through the Treaty at the Foot of the Rapids so that their children could be educated. Through these words of acknowledgment, their contemporary and ancestral ties to the land and their contributions to the University are renewed and reaffirmed.

07 – Turn of the Screw