The Turn of the Screw

In the organizer's words:

Opera by Benjamin Britten
Libretto by Mfyanwy Piper
Based on the novella by Henry James

A mystery thriller as an opera? With Benjamin Britten's eerie chamber opera The Turn of the Screw, horror has found its way onto the world's opera stages and is now giving us the shivers for the first time in Trier. In it, a young governess's first job turns into a horror trip. She is supposed to look after two orphans on a remote country estate - but the two don't seem to be the only ones living in the house.

The governess sees shadowy apparitions in the house. Could these be the two former employees who died mysteriously? A mysterious conspiracy between children and the dead takes on ever more extreme forms. The events come to a head... Both Henry James' original and the opera leave it open as to what is actually happening in front of the governess's eyes and what is mere imagination. It is up to the audience to decide whether they are watching an effectively told ghost story or a breathtaking case study. The governess's battle for the children becomes a journey into the unconscious, a psychological thriller that continues in the viewer's mind.

With his unsettling sounds, Britten composed the perfect soundtrack to this story of the natural versus the unnatural and ingeniously underscores the open narrative. The Turn of the Screw thus became one of the most impressive operas of the 20th century.