Organization

Conductor

Conductor (+3)

Iván Fischer

Stage director

Stage director (+1)

Marco Gandini

Lighting designer

Nils Riefstahl

Set designer

Set designer (+3)

Andrea Tocchio

Costume designer

Costume designer (+2)

Anna Biagiotti

Stage director (+5)

Andrew Staples

Peter Quint

Prologue

Soprano (+2)

Laura Aikin

Mrs. Grose

Soprano (+1)

Miah Persson

Governess

Mezzo-soprano (+2)

Allison Cook

Miss Jessel

Child vocalist (+2)

Ben Fletcher

Miles

Child vocalist (+1)

Lucy Barlow

Flora

Assistant Stage Director

Hannah Gelesz

Assistant Conductor

Orchestra

Budapest Festival Orchestra

Müpa Budapest

Ivan Fischer Opera Company

Teatro Olimpico

Floating between reality and imagination. Constant uncertainty on stage and in the auditorium. A psychological drama disguised as a horror story. Opera productions have been the Festival Orchestra's most prominent performances for years, and this time Iván Fischer chose a truly special piece: he directs and conducts Britten's chamber opera The Screw Turns. The story of two orphaned children and their governess is made eerie by the ghosts of the former governess and valet. Or even more so, the ghosts might only exist in the head of the governess. The opera with a tragic outcome, which, thanks to the unreliability of the narrator, does not even give the viewer a handhold in search of the truth for a moment, is a grateful work both musically and in terms of direction, and with the world-famous soloists returning to the BFZ, it is guaranteed to be a lasting experience.

At the age of eighteen, Britten first encountered Henry James's 1898 short novel in a radio play. The terrifying story immediately captured the young composer, but he did not write an opera from it until much later. The possibility of a libretto in the text was originally seen by Britten's friend Myfanwy Piper, who was involved in visual arts. The joint work went efficiently despite the fact that the two co-creators, living far from each other, relied on letters and long phone conversations. The two-act play, written at the request of the Venice Biennale, was ready by 1954 and was presented on September 14 at the La Fenice theater.

The screw turns once is a real musical feat. Each episode of the opera, consisting of a prologue describing the basic situation and sixteen images, is preceded by a short instrumental introduction, which, when "read together", gives a musical theme and its fifteen variations. The introductions – evoking aural levitation – are played in different tones, and in their instrumentation and motifs, they anticipate the events and protagonists of the given scene. The twelve-note melody of the "screw" theme, which is the basis of the work, plastically refers to Schönberg's dodecaphony and further enhances the tonal uncertainty. Folk songs form a bridge between fiction and reality, clouding not only the nervous governess but also the audience's perception of reality. The childish moments are overshadowed by unexpected entrances and combinations of instruments, the eerie shimmer of the harp or the pairing of the celesta and the viola give the scene an ethereal sound. Britten's and Piper's characters are both fascinating and chilling figures - beyond form, this duality is another of the opera's strengths.

The governess is sung by Miah Persson, a Swedish soprano familiar to the BFZ audience, and the roles of the housekeeper and the ghost governess are sung by two singers with an amazing vocal range, Laura Aikin, who works with the world's greatest conductors, and Allison Cook, who, according to Opera Magazine's critic, is impressive as Miss Jessel. The tenorist of the evening is former student of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Andrew Staples.

A joint event of Müpa, the Iván Fischer Opera Company and the Budapest Festival Orchestra.

Interesting facts Britten's opera was presented on September 14, 1954 at the La Fenice opera house in Venice, performed by the English Opera Group; the Festival Orchestra is performing it for the first time.

What happened during the creation of the opera? In Obninsk, the Soviet Union, the world's first nuclear power plant connected to the electricity grid was put into operation / US Secretary of State John Dulles announced the doctrine of mass retaliation (the answer to any Soviet aggression is a nuclear strike) / Karlheinz Stockhausen's Piano Pieces I–IV were presented in Darmstadt on August 21. his composition titled "Lord of the Flies" by the Nobel Prize-winning English writer William Golding was published / Victor Vasarely, a French artist of Hungarian origin, created his ceramic mural "Hommage à Malévitch" (University of the City of Caracas) / Witold Lutosławski's Concerto for Orchestra was presented in Warsaw on November 26 / Simone was published de Beauvoir's Goncourt Prize-winning novel Mandarins

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