Benjamin Britten – THE TURN OF THE SCREW

In Florence, Italy at Teatro Goldoni, 2015 May 28^th

Review by Fabio Bardelli. Photo: MMF – Opera di Firenze

The Turn of the Screw in Firenze, Italy
. Photo: MMF – Opera di Firenze

 

 

 

 

 

FIRENZE/ITALY: What terrible and unspeakable secret past and present does the home of Bly enclose? What happened or perhaps continues to happen so terrible and disturbing? And what meaning brings this work together complex and extraordinarily evocative?

Hershkowitz and Lally in Turn of the SCHREW IN fIRENZE. Photo: MMF – Opera di Firenze

For over sixty years (the premiere of the Turn of the screw was in Venice in 1954) there are questions about one of the greatest music works of the Twentieth Century and every opportunity to see it represented on stage provokes in the listener feelings, fears, thoughts, revelations of more mysterious and hidden meanings, as well as confirming certainly the admiration for this great work of Benjamin Britten. Similar admiration must however be paid to the beautiful librettist Myfanwy Piper, who brought the story from the novel by Henry James constructing a plot quite disturbing and full of innuendos and references, where the “unsaid” and the “suggested” exceed what is openly said.

CURTAIN CALL IN FLORENZE. Photo: MMF – Opera di Firenze

Nothing is clear in this work almost psychoanalytic, everyone can interpretate in his own way the relationships between the various characters of the story, real or imaginary.

And we are not even sure that the two ghosts (Peter Quint and Miss Jessel) really exist, they may also be a projection of the psyche of the other characters.

Plot so ambiguous and faceted, which the setting of this Florentine staging that we are reviewing (being director Benedetto Sicca) does not do a good service preferring a reassuring normality even with the perfectly useless 3D projection (suitable glasses were provided to the audience in the entrance hall) that for many viewers will have been a curious novelty.

Yana Kleyn in The Turn of the Schrew in FIrenze. Photo: MMF – Opera di Firenze

Ultimately the staging shows no personal interpretations or ideas, the story runs slavishly as expected, almost didactically, the setting (the scenes, very schematic almost childlike, are by Maria Paola di Francesco, and costumes by Marco Piemontese can also be accepted.

But in a work like this, that is almost the apotheosis of “reticence” and “say – do not say” both by the librettist that the musician (we are in the Fifties, and certain issues like violence against children were still taboo), the director gets wrong to “show” what he thinks happened and happens of dubious, while Britten with supreme elegance only suggests: here lies the greatness of a masterpiece, it’s up to the listener unravel text ambiguities in the way that his sensitivity suggests.

Not to mention the tiresome symmetries that are seen on stage, or the final of the last act that is completely trivialized by director Benedetto Sicca that (rather than to let die Miles) let the two “ghosts”, Peter Quint and Miss Jessel, drag him by force in a Barcaccia box of the Theatre.

On the musical side conductor Jonathan Webb seemed more interested in treating symphonic parts that in seeking a constructive agreement with singers, certainly would have been more desirable a more refined work, being this opera staged in the very small Teatro Goldoni with acoustics even too “present” and where a “forte” is almost always a “fortissimo”.

Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in reduced ranks as required by the score was beautifully behaved.

In the vocal cast stood out the excellent Governess of Sara Hershkowitz, of great expressive intensity, the surprising and extremely musical Theo Lally (a boy just ten years old!) in the part of Miles, and Yana Kleyn that with her rich vocal gifts (and with special makeup and costumes) gives an unusual importance to Miss Jessel.

Really well the only Italian of the cast, Gabriella Sborgi as Mrs. Grose.

Midlevel the other performers, especially we might expect more from the tenor John Daszak (Prologue/Peter Quint), in two parts written by Britten for the specific and particular vocal style of his partner in life and art Peter Pears.

Distribution:

Direttore, Jonathan Webb
Regia, Benedetto Sicca
Scene, Maria Paola Di Francesco

Costumi, Marco Piemontese
Luci, Marco Giusti
Elaborazione video, Marco Farace

Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Governess Sara Hershkowitz
Prologue/Quint, John Daszak
Mrs. Grose, Gabriella Sborgi
Miss Jessel, Yana Kleyn
Flora, Rebecca Leggett
Miles, Theo Lally

Review by Fabio Bardelli
translation from italian Riccardo Grillo