Once again we headed to the Brooklyn Academy of Music to see New York City Opera, this time Britten’s The Turn of the Screw. Brooklyn seems to have a divisive effect on us for some reason.
Elizabeth – I love the music of Benjamin Britten. Haunting and light, right from the beginning of Turn of the Screw there is an uneasiness conveyed in the consonance and dissonance of the music.
New York City Opera (NYCO) set the first scene stage with a bare office inhabited by the ward/uncle of two children and an eager new governess overflowing with a desire to please the handsome and apparently wealthy uncle. She sets off to her new job in the country in a car. NYCO used the neat idea (one not unique, as other productions have used this) of having the image of passing scenery projected behind the governess as she goes out to the country. This was confusing as the scenery is coming towards the audience, as though the governess were facing forward driving, yet she is facing the audience—how is she able to drive a car facing backwards? And even if she were in the backseat, the scenery would still be coming towards us. A minor point, but it was distracting and one I would have thought NYCO as a major opera company would have ironed out.
Upon arrival at her new home and job, we are greeted with a 1980s living room scene in an English suburb. I understand possibly being disappointed by the 1980s set when you’re expecting Victorian manor, but I thought the 1980s décor somehow made the situation even scarier. Furniture and toys that were familiar from my own childhood somehow made the ghosts and isolation of these two children even freakier. This could be happening in my own home. And that was precisely the point. In some ways the situation is a child’s dream: no school to have to go to, no parents bossing the children around. Yet what’s going on beneath the surface is a nightmare—ghosts showing up, governesses disappearing. Speaking of, the children were both superb. The young boy Benjamin P. Wentzelberg was great, as was Lauren Worsham as Flora, though her voice sounded older than the young girl she is portraying. I particularly enjoyed Wentzelberg’s possessed performance of “malo” during his Latin lesson. 
I also liked Dominic Armstrong as Quint, the ghost. I wish that he looked a bit more “ghost” like, as not being familiar with the story I wasn’t sure he was a ghost at first, but I loved his voice and the part sounded terribly difficult to execute. There were trembling stuttering movements all over the vocal range.
And Sara Jakubiak as the governess was wonderful, though it was hard to understand why her character was so interested in the children. The only motivation I could see was her being so taken with the uncle or in it for some sort of financial gain. Or maybe it was pity for the children who had lost their parents. She just seemed too taken with them, there seemed to be an ulterior motive. It seemed that her interest had more sinister undertones that weren’t brought out in the production. Regardless, the engaging and haunting music carried this new production at NYCO.
Shawn– The upstairs seating at BAM is far more comfortable than orchestra. As is the upstairs lounge/coffee shop area. I didn’t even know it existed our first time at BAM two weeks ago. It even has its own men’s room so you don’t have to wait for 15 minutes on the traffic clogged house stairs to use one of the 4 urinals of the main men’s room. Such a blessing.
Based on Henry James’ seminal 1898 Victorian horror story set in an English country estate, Britten’s Turn of the Screw can be a frightening and riveting experience. The music is evocative, terrifying and twistedly sexual. My kind of show, and considering how cutting edge, twistedly sexual and engrossing I found New York City Opera’s Powder Her Face to be, I had high hopes. But I found NYCO’s production of Turn of the Screw to be flat and fairly uninspired.Moving the action to an early 80’s suburban setting complete with sofa and TV centered living room needn’t have been a bad choice, but the centre cannot hold. Projected on the center stage TV were images from early 80’s British Television. Particularly BBC Test Card F, with the slightly disturbing picture of a young girl playing tic-tack-toe with a stuffed clown. I spent HOURS on a couch watching a TV similar to the one on stage, staring at that Test Card desperately waiting for BBC programming to resume when I was a child, so its appearance really should been especially evocative to me. But it was just bland background color. As were the bizarre neon crosses rising out of the stage in act two. I found myself so disinterested in the production that I watched the TV screen intently to see what other BBC images from my youth I might remember. Not a good sign if you’re looking to onstage vintage BBC programming to juice up your live opera experience.
The flatness of the production was consistently a distraction from the music, which infuriated me endlessly. For example, Quint’s “call” to the boy, Miles, musically is harrowing, terrifying, even disturbingly romantic. Yet when we first hear it in this production, Quint is standing with his back to the audience at a suspended window frame that is meant to represent the exterior of the house and add depth to the stage space. Little Miles also has his back to us with his hand silhouetted against the snowy TV screen a la the famous one-sheet from Poltergeist. This image summed up all my problems with the production. Both characters singing with their backs to us at a pivotal moment in service to staging that diminished what can be a terrifying and powerful musical and theatrical moment. The direct lifts from Poltergeist, the greatest suburban visual ghost story of all time, could have really have worked. When stealing, always steal from the best, but yet all onstage remained as flat as the TV screen.
There was almost no element of the staging that worked for me. The trap doors used to reveal the spirits Quint and Jessup weren’t very effective. Even technically they seemed to need a tune up as the raising and lowering speed was inconsistent. Beginning fast and jerky then slowing down. It was really distracting and added to the sad air of amateur hour that hung over the whole performance.
The singers were fine, especially Dominic Armstrong as Quint, but I would have loved to see them in a different production, as I was so distracted and annoyed for much of the performance. I actually did see young Benjamin P Wentzelberg who sang Miles, sing the same role in a far less funded production of Turn of the Screw at Symphony Space last year that I enjoyed much more. That doesn’t bode well for New York City Opera sadly. I want NYCO to succeed as much if not more than anybody, but they need to up their game somehow. Please! It did get me excited for Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Met next year however, so it all was not a complete wash.
– Elizabeth Frayer and Shawn E Milnes
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