![]() ![]() ![]() However, a real musical highlight is Miles’ ‘ Malo’, where the words of a Latin mnemonic are sung in a trance-like state, making for one of the most unnerving arias in all of opera! Hear some highlights with our Spotify playlist »īritten first came across James’ Turn of the Screw in 1932 (aged 18) when he heard it on the radio, writing in his diary that he thought it “a wonderful, impressive but terribly eerie & scarey play.” However, work on an operatic adaptation did not begin until more than 20 years later, when librettist Myfanwy Piper suggested it as a subject. ![]() The sequence ascends during Act I and descends in Act II to represent the ‘screw’ being tightened and released, and is heard throughout the whole opera in multiple variations.īritten also uses nursery rhymes – now a familiar horror device – for Miles and Flora, such as ‘Lavender’s Blue’ and ‘Tom, Tom, the Piper’s Son’. This idea is deliberately (and eerily!) childlike in its simplicity. Most importantly, each connecting interlude is built around the ‘screw’ theme, which is the 12-note-row (every note of the scale). The piece is tightly structured – its two acts are divided into exactly eight scenes, and every scene is preceded by an orchestral interlude, which sets the mood. The Turn of the Screw is a chamber opera, meaning that its orchestra has just 13 players, but these few players are used effectively to create an incredibly atmospheric sound world. ![]()
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