Benjamin Britten - The Turn of the Screw / Padmore · Milne · Wyn Davies · Montague · City of London Sinfonia · Hickox

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION


Benjamin Britten's haunting and sinister opera, composed in 1954, is based on the famous novella written by Henry James in 1898. Katie Mitchell's atmospheric and innovative film of the opera returns to the late 19th Century setting of the original story, Fulbeck Hall in Lincolnshire. The ghostly atmosphere of the music is perfectly re-created by clever lighting techniques and faded colours of the costumes. Visual inspiration is from the photographic work of Julia Margaret Cameron, Munch, Strindberg and the early Spiritualists. The result is a world where the boundaries between the living and the dead are chillingly blurred.

Press Reviews
"What Katie Mitchell has devised is a highly evocative film to go with a performance of The Turn of the Screw. The result is very different from a conventional staging, with the singers, for much of the time, acting out their roles without being seen singing. The performance itself is excellent, with Richard Hickox drawing taut playing from the City of London Sinfonia in support of a first-rate cast." (The Penguin Guide)
"Hickox and his exceptional cast capture beautifully the escalating tension that makes the score so gripping in the theatre." (BBC Music Magazine)

"Mark Padmore is among the best of Quints, vocally and histrionically. Catryn Wyn-Davies is a properly wild and scary Miss Jessel. All in all, this is the version to have." (Gramophone)

"The transference of opera to film can be fraught with difficulty. In worst case scenarios, it can be disastrous. However in the present case, it is a wonderful success." (Musicweb International)

Cast
Mark Padmore (Prologue/Quint)
Lisa Milne (Governess)
Catrin Wyn Davies (Miss Jessel)
Diana Montague (Mrs Grose)
Nicholas Kirkby Johnson (Miles)
Caroline Wise (Flora)
City of London Sinfonia; Richard Hickox
Production
Company: BBC Worldwide
Stage Director: Katie Mitchell

Disc Information
Catalogue Number: OA0907D
Running Time: 117 minutes
Sound: LPCM Stereo; Dolby Surround
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Anamorphic
Subtitles: EN, FR, D, ES
Label: Opus Arte




Benjamin Britten's opera The Turn of the Screw is a masterpiece of atmosphere, ambiguity, and eerie foreboding. Britten's vocal lines mirror the characters' thoughts and feelings and his brilliant orchestration, with its variety of moods and colors, adds fresh nuances to the narrative, pushing it to its inexorable conclusion with emotional power. Richard Hickox conducts expertly and the small orchestra plays with mood-sustaining feeling and projects Britten's inventive scoring with expressiveness and tonal beauty. Lisa Milne in the pivotal role of the governess is superb, singing and acting the role as if born for it. The veteran soprano Diana Montagu as the old housekeeper matches her vocally and acts wonderfully; the interactions between the two singers convey their shared fears, overt in the governess, largely suppressed by the housekeeper. The ghosts are as good; the evil Quint well-portrayed by Mark Padmore, whose beautiful high lyric tenor bends notes and phrases with suitably honeyed malevolence. The children and the former governess are on the same exalted level.

But what makes this DVD version so successful is Katie Mitchell's imaginative direction, vindicating the risky decision to translate the opera from stage to film. This can often subvert what is after all a stage work, artificially airing out indoor scenes or incongruities like having arias sung on mountaintops. Here though, she uses images like a bird's egg crushed by Quint or the dark woods surrounding the house to amplify characterization and mood. Even the device of having soliloquies on the soundtrack while the singer is close-mouthed on screen works, thanks to superb acting that substitutes the understated facial expressions of film for the overstated acting enforced by the stage. Rarely does Mitchell falter; perhaps there are a few too many shots of the ghosts walking purposefully in the woods, but such moments are unimportant given the excellence of this, the finest DVD version of the opera. --Dan Davis

Actors: Mark Padmore, Lisa Milne, Diana Montague, Nicholas Kirby Johnson, Caroline Wise, Richard Hickox

Audio Languages: English

Duration: 119 minutes

Number of Discs: 1

Subtitle Languages: English, Spanish, German, French, Italian

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