Le tour d'écrou

Description

A wonderful and frightening story by Britten. Recorded in April 2013 on the occasion of the Britten Year, this 2010 production brings together an exclusively English cast, including the young Michael Clayton-Jolly, aged 11, in the role of Miles. The late Sir Colin Davis was originally due to conduct, and it was Richard Farnes, his designated successor, who naturally replaced him. In 1932, Britten, then 18 years old, heard on the radio a “wonderful but frightening” version of Henry James’s play, The Turn of the Screw. Britten’s version, premiered in 1954, is a chamber opera in a prologue and two acts. The story is that of a governess and a housekeeper who try to protect two children, Miles and Flora, from strange events taking place in the grounds of their house in the English countryside.