Brandi Parisi, Minnesota
Public Radio music host, discusses the history of The Turn of the Screw
and the changing interpretations of it over time.
The Turn of the Screw was composed in 1954, based
on the densely written Victorian ghost story by Henry James. With its 16 scenes
plus prologue in two acts, it is definitely an opera to be seen, as well as heard.
Britten intended, in fact, for the work to exist as a live opera, not to be listened
to only for its music. Only three recordings of The Turn of the Screw even
exist, one of which was conducted by Britten himself. As scenes from the Minnesota
Opera's production demonstrate, the dramatically stunning visuals are a highlight
of the opera.
The overriding question in this story is: is it really
a ghost story, or the story of a woman going insane? Britten (and James) left
this all up to the reader (or listener). At no point in the work do the children
actually claim to see or hear the spirits that the Governess is plagued by - until
the end of the story. And of course, the tragic ending (when Miles screams at
Quint, and then dies) can easily be attributed to disturbances caused by the Governess
herself.
Neither Britten nor James gives the audience much assistance
in navigating the plot labyrinth. While this production by the Minnesota Opera
tends to lean toward a more psychologically based explanation for the events -
the Governess is insane - Ive personally seen two other productions of the work
that played out as more "true" ghost stories. I should note however,
that neither of these productions were very thought-provoking, or even very interesting,
in comparison with this one.
It is worth mentioning (as the Minnesota Opera's liner
notes explain) that the theories of Freud were coming into vogue at the time James
wrote The Turn of the Screw. Several critics of the time even went so far
as to parallel the character of the Governess with a rather famous patient of
Freud known as Lucy R., also a governess, who, according to Freud's notes, became
obsessed with her employer, and fantisized taking the place of his deceased wife.
After allowing a male vistor to kiss the two children in her care, the governess
was dismissed in a distastrously humiliating incident, and became further fixated
on the family, with manic episodes triggered by certain smells associated with
the home. While James steadfastly claimed no parallel, the similarities of this
much-publicized case with the character of the Governess in The Turn of the
Screw are undeniable.
The ambiguities of James's original text were left fully
intact, and were even exacerbated by Britten's instrumentation - a haunting, at
times almost skeletal musical meditation that keeps the listener at constant unease
throughout the work. Several writers have pointed to Britten's own unease in his
personal life (and in particular his discomfort with his homosexuality) in relation
to this work. The obvious issues of child molestation have likely been brought
a bit more to the front in modern interpretations of The Turn of the Screw,
while in the Britten's own day these doubtlessly were issues only alluded to with
innuendo, as was sexuality on the whole.
