Britten’s last chamber opera
The Turn of
the Screw began its career in Venice, so it is not particularly
remarkable that this DVD of the opera should come from Germany. The
work has always had a strong dramatic appeal - more so than Britten’s
later Henry James opera
Owen Wingrave (also with a libretto by
Myfanwy Piper). His use of a small ensemble of players, with the score
bound together with a returning twelve-tone row - although the score
itself is not dodecaphonic - matches the small scale of the James
novella
to perfection. The work has also had an enduring appeal, not only because
the subject-matter remains unfortunately topical to this day, but also
because the story lends itself to a wide variety of psychological interpretations.
To judge from the BBC television productions that Britten conducted
or supervised during his lifetime -
Peter Grimes,
Owen Wingrave
and
Billy Budd, all now thankfully restored to circulation on
DVD - he preferred his operas to be staged in a realistic style. He
would have been delighted with this production, mounted originally by
the Royal Opera Covent Garden but seen here in a transfer to the Schwetzingen
Festival. John Gunter’s sets are minimal, with a French window,
gravestones in the churchyard, the bare necessities of furniture. They
are backed with photographic projections of a lake, road, and so on
which gives a real sense of atmosphere and place - a realism which makes
the eruptions of the supernatural into the ‘normal’ world
all the more effective.
Britten does not help matters, however, by the extreme concision of
some of the scenes. During the orchestral interludes which separate
one from the next, the camera continually cuts away to the orchestra
pit where we see Steuart Bedford encouraging his players as well as
close-ups of the individual instrumentalists in action. This produces
a rather bitty effect, and continually interrupts the sense of dramatic
continuity and theatrical illusion. However the cameras are always in
the right place when we are viewing the action, and we miss nothing
of the intense acting of the cast, all of whom are well inside their
roles.
Helen Field as the Governess gives a superb depiction of her descent
into monomania, and her growing conviction that the children have been
the subject of what nowadays we would call child abuse. The frightening
nature of her portrayal of her fears of ghostly possession - when those
around her can see nothing - is brilliantly handled. However - and it
is a real drawback - it is often very difficult to hear exactly what
she is singing about. Robert Tear has told us of an incident when Britten
tackled him in a real rage because he felt that the singer was giving
precedence to the beauty of his tone projection at the expense of dramatic
projection. Here one notices that Field is similarly concentrating on
making a beautiful sound, even when this involves her in the distortion
of vowel sounds and the swallowing of consonants. Turning on the English
subtitles does not help, because annoyingly these are surprisingly inaccurate
with continual alterations of the text as sung in the vocal score. There
are also one or two clearly deliberate amendments made to fit the production,
which the subtitles blithely ignore.
Apart from the lead singer in the role of the Governess, the other major
role in this opera will always present a real problem of casting. The
boy treble who takes the part of Miles not only has to project volume
to match the rest of the cast, but also has to act the part of a boy
who has become preternaturally mature ahead of his age. It must be said
that Samuel Linay fulfils both these requirements admirably. He is superbly
knowing and sinister in the closing scenes and his diction is better
than that of the adults in the cast too. As his sister Machiko Obato
looks too old to be credible as a girl who is still playing with dolls.
She is nearly as tall as the adults who surround her but this role too
presents difficulties if it is cast with a girl soprano, and she blends
well into the musical ensemble. Phyllis Cannan is a strong Mrs Grose,
whose growing relationship with the troubled Governess is carefully
observed, although again her diction is pretty impenetrable. This is
not helped by Britten’s writing for the female voices or Myfanwy
Piper’s unnecessarily literary style in the text. When she says
to the Governess “I don’t understand you” it is unfortunately
all too true.
As the ghosts, both Richard Greager and Menai Davies are kept largely
to the back of the stage. Their voices sound as though they are amplified
to give them a supernatural echo. Given their peculiar status in the
drama - are they real, or simply figments of the Governess’s over-active
imagination? - this works well even when the amplified voices threaten
to over-balance the ensemble passages. Greager does not manage the haunting
quietness of the other-worldly Peter Pears in the original recording,
but his
melismata have pin-point accuracy and his diction in
the Prologue is clearest of all.
The playing of the Stuttgart orchestra is superb, fully the equal of
any of its rivals in the CD catalogue. Steuart Bedford had a long personal
association with Britten’s music, and he conducted the first performances
of
Death in Venice when the composer was too ill to do so. His
understanding of the idiom comes through in every bar, but it is not
simply a copy of Britten’s - the closing bars are less overtly
dramatic in a romantic way, more carefully controlled, and the results
are equally as convincing.
The opera is well represented in the DVD catalogues. Currently available
are versions conducted by Jakob Hrusa, Richard Hickox, David Stanhope
and Daniel Harding. I have seen none of these although there was once
a film by Petr Weigl - the soundtrack drawn from the Colin Davis audio
recording - which was similarly realistic in style to the production
under review here. The Richard Hickox recording also forms the basis
for a film but the other versions are drawn from stage productions.
All of them have received favourable reviews. I bought the DVD under
review here when it was re-issued in 2008, and have enjoyed it several
times since; it is a beautiful rendition even given some of the reservations
which I have expressed. The bonus, a mere five minutes, consists of
a brief synopsis of the opera given in German-accented English. The
DVD comes with subtitles translated into German, French and Spanish
and 4:3 format.
Paul Corfield Godfrey
See also review by
Kevin
Sutton of the previous release (Arthaus 100199)
Britten discography & review index:
The
Turn of the Screw
[113.00]
