...and I do prefer it over Petr Weigl's film, which was still fine and the better of his two Britten films, but I seriously loved this production. For one thing, it is very interesting visually, the images were done in slide-show style and looks very cinematic, complete with the hauntingly beautiful English countryside. The stage direction does well to heighten the tension and mood of the opera and I personally thought Peter Quint appearing at the window was chilling. Musically, the production is simply outstanding. Britten's music is not for all, I for one find it very expressive- whether in the fantasy-dream-like aspects of Midsummer's Night's Dream, the sparkling wit of Albert Herring, the austerity of Peter Grimes, the regality of Gloriana and the elegiac poignancy of Billy Budd- whereas others find it cold. The Turn of the Screw is overall not my favourite of his operas(as of now I am not sure which it is it changes all the time) and probably not his most accessible(Let's Make an Opera possibly), but psychologically it is his most complex and very compelling in how he shapes parts and how he writes for the voice.
That said, The orchestral playing is very lyrical and spine-chilling at the same time, while Richard Hickox gives one of the finest conducting jobs I have heard for a Britten production, conveying the chromatic beauty and creepy horror of the score brilliantly with often bone-chilling textures and elegant phrasing. The performances are also brilliant. Lisa Milne is here the best I've seen her, she plays innocent and plucky to perfection and sings wonderfully and more controlled than I've heard her before. Mark Padmore is a superb Quint, sounding much at home in the Prologue. He is at his best however in his calls to Miles, both inviting and sinister, and when he peers through the window, the make-up alone ensured the dramatic effect of this scene. The children, Nicholas Kirby Johnson and Caroline Wise are excellent as the children Miles and Flora, Johnson in particular gives a heart-wrenching rendition of the Malo tune. Catrin Wyn Davies is a hair-raising Miss Jessel with a great lower register, and Diana Montague is wonderful as Mrs Grose, her conversation with Milne is the very definition of intense.
Overall, a brilliant performance, some of the flashbacks in crucial scenes were not needed, other than that the enormously satisfying everything else more than made up for any minor miscalculations. 9.5/10 Bethany Cox
That said, The orchestral playing is very lyrical and spine-chilling at the same time, while Richard Hickox gives one of the finest conducting jobs I have heard for a Britten production, conveying the chromatic beauty and creepy horror of the score brilliantly with often bone-chilling textures and elegant phrasing. The performances are also brilliant. Lisa Milne is here the best I've seen her, she plays innocent and plucky to perfection and sings wonderfully and more controlled than I've heard her before. Mark Padmore is a superb Quint, sounding much at home in the Prologue. He is at his best however in his calls to Miles, both inviting and sinister, and when he peers through the window, the make-up alone ensured the dramatic effect of this scene. The children, Nicholas Kirby Johnson and Caroline Wise are excellent as the children Miles and Flora, Johnson in particular gives a heart-wrenching rendition of the Malo tune. Catrin Wyn Davies is a hair-raising Miss Jessel with a great lower register, and Diana Montague is wonderful as Mrs Grose, her conversation with Milne is the very definition of intense.
Overall, a brilliant performance, some of the flashbacks in crucial scenes were not needed, other than that the enormously satisfying everything else more than made up for any minor miscalculations. 9.5/10 Bethany Cox
