The last time you heard me talk about Turn of the Screw was last semester when describing one of my theatre design projects. You probably thought that would be the last you’d hear of Benjamin Britten’s opera… but you thought WRONG! New York City Opera, recently moved from Koch Theatre in Lincoln Center to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, put on four performances of this 1954 magnum opus. I was extremely excited to finally see the opera I had spent so much time working on and listening to in my dorm room. On stage, my imaginations would finally come to life right in front of my eyes!
The story begins when a governess (Sara Jakubiak) arrives at an English country estate (Bly house) to look after Miles (Benjamin P. Wenzelberg) and Flora (Lauren Worsham). She had been wooed by their handsome guardian back in the city, and in order to impress him, took the job. At first, everything appears normal but then events gradually begin to grow strange. One night, the ghost of the past valet, Peter Quint (Dominic Armstrong) appears before the governess. Later, the ghost of the previous governess, Miss Jessel (Jennifer Goode Cooper) appears as well. The children refuse to admit that they see these ghosts, and the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose (Sharmay Musacchio), is hesitant to admit that they are there as well. It seems, though, as if the ghosts have been communicating with the children, and that they are keeping a dark secret. In the end, the secrets create tension in the house. Mrs. Grose is forced to remove Flora from Bly, while the governess attempts to protect Miles from the evil spirits of the phantoms. In the end, she fails miserably as Miles ends up dying in her arms.
How is that for a brief summary? Because I went into this opera knowing the story and being familiar with the music, what was important for me to pay attention to was how the director decided to portray the characters and plot. Though the original story takes place in the 19th century, Sam Buntrock decided to place the characters in the early 1980s. The set and props mirror this decade as Miles plays with his Starwars themed toys.
Having designed my own set for the opera, I would like to talk about some of the scenic and costume elements. The second scene in the opera is described in the libretto as taking place in a carriage. I was always curious how this scene could be pulled off. Because the stage is so big, how can a designer portray the intimate interior of a carriage? In this production, the governess stood in front 
of a black scrim with a projection of a windshield and rearview mirror. The strange thing about this decision was that the cars in the rearview mirror were driving backwards. Was this a conscious decision on the part of the designer, or was it a mistake?
Overall, the set was pretty simple. There was a living room, a staircase with a door at the top, and two rooms that moved on and off of the stage. To represent the different scenes – the lake scene, the tower scene, the church scene, and so on – exposed light bulbs raised and lowered. During the lake scene, the lights would lower down all the way to the floor. For scenes that took place outside of Bly house, the lightbulbs would form the shape of a pitched roof.
Having never seen the opera, there were some visual elements and character decisions that took me by surprise. Knowing the story from the libretto, I never was able to figure out exactly how Miss Jessel had died. No one ever explains it in the music. That being said, when you can actually see the character of Miss Jessel’s ghost, it can easily be figured out that she had been pregnant (“disgraced”) and either died in childbirth or through a miscarriage. Another thing that wasn’t easily pictured while listening to a CD version of the opera, was how the ghosts appeared on stage. In this production, Peter Quint would always walk into the scene while Miss Jessel would rise out of a trap in the floor. At one point, though, Quint was hiding behind a door, and when Miles slammed it shut, the audience gasped in surprise to see the bloody-faced ghost behind it.
So yes, I ruined the ending by telling you guys that Miles died. At first, his death was pretty anticlimactic. He yells at Peter Quint and collapses on the floor. As the governess rocks him in her arms, singing the memorable “Malo” melody that Miles sang throughout the story, the audience is fixated on the TV in the background. Images flash before our eyes, and we are distracted. There is nothing else to keep our attention as the song she is singing is repetitive and soothing. All of a sudden, the TV screen starts to get fuzzy. Miles walks out of the door above the staircase – as a ghost! HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? Is this magic? The governess was just rocking him in her arms, how could he have switched places with a dummy? The illusion was perfect and was a spectacular ending to the very eerie production.
The Turn of the Screw
Brooklyn Academy of Music
March 2, 2012
Marina B. Nebro
