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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Britten: The Turn of the ScrewGlyndebourne production by Jonathan Kent
It is indeed ‘a curious story’, as the Prologue says. A remote English country house, an old and faithful housekeeper, two young orphan children and an eager new governess sent down from London to look after them. But all is not quite as it seems in the sheltered world of Bly. Spirits from the past increasingly encroach upon the realm of the living. And one question keeps worming its way into the governess’s mind: what exactly did happen between the children, their former governess and the deceased manservant, Peter Quint? Britten’s brilliantly scored, insidiously compelling adaptation of Henry James’s novella takes its themes of childish innocence and adult corruption, then twists and turns them to disturbing and ultimately devastating effect. Jonathan Kent’s eerily unsettling staging has been recorded at the Glyndebourne Festival conducted by Glyndebourne on Tour’s Music Director, Jakub Hrusa. “Here is Britten’s supremely crafted operatic masterpiece — not a dud moment or false move — in a shatteringly powerful performance of such musical and theatrical distinction that I scarcely know where to begin apportioning praise. Perhaps the conductor: I already knew the quality of Jonathan Kent’s production from its first outing in 2006, and the cast looked pretty hot on paper too. But what I hadn’t suspected was that the young Czech conductor Jakub Hrusa would offer such a thrillingly visceral, angry and churned-up reading of the score. Galvanising the LPO to playing of scalding brilliance, Hrusa carefully ratcheted up the tension in the early scenes and brought the drama to the boil with an almost daemonic intensity. This wasn’t a nice creepy bedtime story, but something reaching dangerously into the darker reaches of human nature.” Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph “one of the company’s best Britten performances. Jonathan Kent’s production, vividly conducted by Jakob Hrusa, turns the Victorian ghost story into something more modern but equally “innocent” – a 1950s psychological thriller, with strong performances [from Persson and Spence]” Financial Times, 30th November 2012 “The Turn of the Screw has been lucky on DVD - but forget those performances. This Glyndebourne production is streets ahead...At its dark heart lies Jakub Hrusa's quite astonishing conducting...A cast of first-rate singers infuse their roles with unnerving life...Altogether, one of the finest opera performances on DVD. Buy it.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2013 ***** “the casting is ideal...Hrusa's conducting, completely unlike Britten's more romantic approach, looks throughout to emphasise the tone-row (and atonal) elements that stalk this score like the story's ghosts. It's a real contribution to our musical knowledge of the score.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2013 “the singing is probably the finest on any DVD version of the work … Miah Persson is flawless … Her diction, pitch and sense of line are impeccable … [Spence's] melismatic singing is clean and effortless … wonderful children … Jakub Hrusa leads the London Philharmonic in an instinctual, perversely accented, gut-wrenching reading and the 15-or-so instrumentalists are superb … Both picture and sound are excellent … musically close to perfection” International Record Review, March 2013 “the video direction of François Roussillon fully exploits the intimacy of the DVD medium, of this opera and of Jonathan Kent’s stage direction...This superlatively sung, played, acted and directed production sets a gold standard for future staged versions...The opera comes with 22 minutes of extras. These illuminate why this Glyndebourne 2011 version is so distinctive, how it developed and the nature of the journey for the performers” MusicWeb International, March 2013  BBC Music Magazine
DVD Choice - January 2013 |
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| |  | Britten: The Turn of the ScrewGlyndebourne production by Jonathan Kent
It is indeed ‘a curious story’, as the Prologue says. A remote English country house, an old and faithful housekeeper, two young orphan children and an eager new governess sent down from London to look after them. But all is not quite as it seems in the sheltered world of Bly. Spirits from the past increasingly encroach upon the realm of the living. And one question keeps worming its way into the governess’s mind: what exactly did happen between the children, their former governess and the deceased manservant, Peter Quint? Britten’s brilliantly scored, insidiously compelling adaptation of Henry James’s novella takes its themes of childish innocence and adult corruption, then twists and turns them to disturbing and ultimately devastating effect. Jonathan Kent’s eerily unsettling staging has been recorded at the Glyndebourne Festival conducted by Glyndebourne on Tour’s Music Director, Jakub Hrusa. “Here is Britten’s supremely crafted operatic masterpiece — not a dud moment or false move — in a shatteringly powerful performance of such musical and theatrical distinction that I scarcely know where to begin apportioning praise. Perhaps the conductor: I already knew the quality of Jonathan Kent’s production from its first outing in 2006, and the cast looked pretty hot on paper too. But what I hadn’t suspected was that the young Czech conductor Jakub Hrusa would offer such a thrillingly visceral, angry and churned-up reading of the score. Galvanising the LPO to playing of scalding brilliance, Hrusa carefully ratcheted up the tension in the early scenes and brought the drama to the boil with an almost daemonic intensity. This wasn’t a nice creepy bedtime story, but something reaching dangerously into the darker reaches of human nature.” Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph “The Turn of the Screw has been lucky on DVD - but forget those performances. This Glyndebourne production is streets ahead...At its dark heart lies Jakub Hrusa's quite astonishing conducting...A cast of first-rate singers infuse their roles with unnerving life...Altogether, one of the finest opera performances on DVD. Buy it.” BBC Music Magazine, January 2013 ***** “one of the company’s best Britten performances. Jonathan Kent’s production, vividly conducted by Jakob Hrusa, turns the Victorian ghost story into something more modern but equally “innocent” – a 1950s psychological thriller, with strong performances [from Persson and Spence]” Financial Times, 30th November 2012 “the video direction of François Roussillon fully exploits the intimacy of the DVD medium, of this opera and of Jonathan Kent’s stage direction...This superlatively sung, played, acted and directed production sets a gold standard for future staged versions...The opera comes with 22 minutes of extras. These illuminate why this Glyndebourne 2011 version is so distinctive, how it developed and the nature of the journey for the performers.” MusicWeb International, March 2013 “the singing is probably the finest on any DVD version of the work … Miah Persson is flawless … Her diction, pitch and sense of line are impeccable … [Spence's] melismatic singing is clean and effortless … wonderful children … Jakub Hrusa leads the London Philharmonic in an instinctual, perversely accented, gut-wrenching reading and the 15-or-so instrumentalists are superb … Both picture and sound are excellent … musically close to perfection” International Record Review, March 2013 “the casting is ideal...Hrusa's conducting, completely unlike Britten's more romantic approach, looks throughout to emphasise the tone-row (and atonal) elements that stalk this score like the story's ghosts. It's a real contribution to our musical knowledge of the score.” Gramophone Magazine, February 2013 BBC Music Magazine DVD/Blu-ray Choice - January 2013 |
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“Britten's devastating master-opera is graced with a performance to match, with stellar playing and a mesmerising tour de force each from Robert Tear's Quint and Helen Donath's Governess.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2012 ***** | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Britten: The Turn of the Screw
The mid-price collection presents some of the most important and admired recordings of the EMI Classics and Virgin Classics catalogue which make EMI 'The Home of Opera'. This performance of The Turn of the Screw was recorded in 2002 at the Maltings Concert Hall, Snape, Suffolk. “This performance captures the sense of dislocation essential to this chilling ghost story” BBC Music Magazine, June 2010 *** “The beauty of [Bostridge's] calls to Miles from the tower in the First Act convince you that he could cast a spell over the boy...Vocally Rodgers is dependably secure, often very beautiful, and always intelligent...Top marks to the lot: well-paced, atmospheric, and detailed” John Armstrong, bbc.co.uk, 20th November 2002 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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Eilene Hannan (Governess), Anson Austin (Prologue/Quint), Margaret Haggart (Mrs Grose), Wendy Dixon (Miss Jessel), Patrick Littlemore (Miles), Lanette Jones (Flora) The West Australian Symphony Orchestra & Opera Australia, David Stanhope PICTURE FORMAT: 4:3
LENGTH: 113 Mins
SOUND: STEREO
SUBTITLES: EN
“As the Governess, Eilene Hannan performed grippingly…The final scene, going from high drama to poignant grief, was arrestingly good” The Australian | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Britten: The Turn of the Screw
“As Sir Colin Davis has shown on Philips, there's room for an alternative interpretation of this remarkable work, but this superb first recording will remain as documentary-historical evidence of the highest importance and value. Will there ever be a better performance, let alone recording, of The Turn of the Screw than this by the original cast, recorded less than four months after the 1954 Venice premiere? This score is Britten at his greatest, expressing good and evil with equal ambivalence, evoking the tense and sinister atmosphere of Bly by inspired use of the chamber orchestra and imparting vivid and truthful life to every character in the story. As one listens, transfixed, all that matters is Britten's genius as a composer. Jennifer Vyvyan's portrayal of the Governess is a classic characterisation, her vocal subtleties illuminating every facet of the role and she has the perfect foil in Joan Cross's motherly and uncomplicated Mrs Grose. The glittering malevolence of Pears's Quint, luring David Hemmings's incomparable Miles to destruction; the tragic tones of Arda Mandikian's Miss Jessel; Olive Dyer's spiteful Flora – how fortunate we are that these performances are preserved.
As with all the Decca/Britten reissues, the transfer is a triumph.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 “Though the recording is in mono olny, the very dryness and sharpness of focus give an extra intensity to the composer's own incomparable reading of this most compressed opera...so atmospheric and powerful is this performance, visuals become almost irrelevant, so vividly are pictures painted in the mind.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition | | | (Sorry, download not available in your country) | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | Britten: The Turn of the ScrewLive Recording from The Schwetzingen SWR Festival, 1990
This interpretation of Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw by Michael Hampe was recorded in 1990 at the Schwetzingen SWR Festival in a co-production with the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, London, and the Opera of Cologne in 1990. The Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra played under the direction of Steuart Bedford, an expert in Britten’s orchestral language. Based on the novel by Henry James The Turn of the Screw is certainly more than just a beautifully spine-chilling gothic story. In his musical rendering, Britten succeeds in masterfully portraying the fateful relationships of the characters involved. Helen Field, Menai Davies, Machiko Obata and Richard Greager bring the characters in this moving plot to life in a very impressive way and convince the audience with superb voices. BONUS: Introduction to the opera. Sound Format: PCM Stereo Picture Format: 4:3 DVD Format: DVD 9 / NTSC Subtitle Languages: GB (Original Language), DE, FR, ES Running Time: 114 mins (Opera) & 8 mins (Bonus) FSK: 0 | 
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| |  | Britten: The Turn of the Screw
Britten’s operas have an interesting history at Glyndebourne beginning with the premiere of The Rape of Lucretia at Glyndebourne (1946) with Kathleen Ferrier as Lucretia. Glyndebourne also premiered Albert Herring (1947) then 34 years of the Glyndebourne Festival elapsed until another of Britten’s operas, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, was staged in 1981. It took over 50 years to stage The Turn of the Screw, which after a touring production in 2006 transferred to the Festival in 2007, from where this recording is captured. Every role is beautifully cast through tenor William Burden, as both Prologue and Peter Quint, and Camilla Tilling as the convincing troubled Governess. Anne-Marie Owens is an extremely affable Mrs Grose, her voice endearing and warm. Joanna Songi is a feisty and resentful Flora; Christopher Sladdin’s boy treble voice is hauntingly beautiful, and Emma Bell is a sure-footed Miss Jessel. This recording is aided in no small part by conductor Edward Gardner whose intense understanding of the score is made all the more satisfying by the faultless playing of the ensemble from the London Philharmonic Orchestra. This recording is certain to leave listeners troubled. It would not be the recording it is if it did not do so; the mood dark and chilling while maintaining an element of thrill. Edward Gardner appears courtesy of Chandos Records Ltd. “this version has the advantages of being taken from live performances and electrifyingly brilliant playing from the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Edward Gardner...Christopher Sladdin and Joanna Songi are both innocent and creepy as Miles and Flora” The Telegraph, 9th June 2011 **** “The recording splendidly captures the breath and the pulse...conducted with a thrilling precision of rhythm, transparency of texture and horrifyingly inexorability of momentum by Edward Gardner. From the first frisson of Andrew Smith's potent, later demonic, piano playing, we are drawn into the plight of every character...This will be a superb aide-memoire for anyone who saw Jonathan Kent's production; and a revelatory sound-drama for all” BBC Music Magazine, July 2011 **** “Edward Gardner, conducting the London Philharmonic, makes the score tingle ...Camilla Tilling’s lyric soprano stresses the Governess’s virtue over neurosis. Emma Bell is the suitably scary Miss Jessel...the children are excellent.” Financial Times, 25 *** “Everything is brilliantly executed - the pacing taut, the feeling for Britten's sound world instinctive and the instrumental playing well-nigh unsurpassed. Like the production, Gardner peers fearlessly below the score's surface...Camilla Tilling gets right under the skin of the Governess...William Burden and Emma Bell put flesh on the ghostly couple, with Burden hitting a conversational tone in the Prologue.” Gramophone Magazine, August 2011 “Everything is in place, especially the rhythmic vitality so crucial to this score. The LPO in chamber-style mode plays gloriously, especially the individual wind instruments...[Gardner] manages the vital transitions from scene to scene with absolute seamlessness...Burden confirms that he was seemingly born for the Britten repertoire...Through the vocalism there also emerges an unmistakably sexual allure in this Quint that I have not heard matched by others in this role” International Record Review, July/August 2011 BBC Music Magazine Opera Choice - July 2011 |
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| |  | Britten: The Turn of the Screw
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| |  | Britten: The Turn of the Screw
Written in 1954, Benjamin Britten's opera based on Henry James' tale, written in 1898, is a story with a sinister undertone. In this film of the opera we return to the late 19th Century setting of the original story, Fulbeck Hall in Lincolnshire. The ghostly atmosphere of the music is perfectly re-created by clever lighting techniques and faded colours of the costumes. Visual inspiration is from the photographic work of Julia Margaret Cameron, Munch, Strindberg and the early Spiritualists. The result is a world where the boundaries between the living and the dead are chillingly blurred. PICTURE FORMAT: 16:9
LENGTH: 119 MINS
SOUND: DOLBY SURROUND / DOLBY STEREO
SUBTITLES: EN/FR/DE/ES/IT
“This film was much lauded when shown on BBC2. Katie Mitchell's arresting production opens up the story, taking it into the countryside and producing spooky and louring images to create the mysterious and dangerous aura of Bly, which does no harm to the intentions of Henry James and Benjamin Britten. Mitchell allows the characters' interior monologues to be heard while the singers' mouths remain closed – especially apt for the role of the Governess.
For about two-thirds of the work the director keeps within the boundaries stipulated by Britten and librettist Myfanwy Piper, making us fully aware of the ambiguities of the participants and their relationships. But in the third part she rather allows her ideas to get out of hand, the nightmarish images becoming too surreal, especially for the ghosts and the children, although she recovers in time to make the final struggle between the Governess and Quint for Miles's soul an arresting close. We're left, as we should be, uncertain at the state of the Governess's mind and the exact powers of the ghosts.
Richard Hickox commands every aspect of the tricky score, lovingly executed by members of his City of London Sinfonia, even if the balance with the singers sometimes goes awry.
The cast is splendid. Nicholas Kirby Johnson as Miles achieves just the right balance between innocence and knowingness. His singing is fluent and pointed, as is that of Caroline Wise, a teenage Flora with a lively presence, expressive eyes and a malleable voice. Lisa Milne, unflatteringly garbed, is rather too confident of voice and mien as the Governess. Although she sings with her customary clarity of line and word, she doesn't suggest the nervous vulnerability of Jennifer Vyvyan, who created the role. Diana Montague is a gratifyingly sympathetic Mrs Grose, using body language to convey just the right feeling of apprehension and concern over the fate of her charges. Mark Padmore is among the best of Quints, vocally and histrionically. Catryn Wyn-Davies is a properly wild and scary Miss Jessel. All in all, this is the version to have.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 “Katie Mitchell directs very much in the BBC classic manner… Bly's grand but bleak interiors and iron-grey woodlands splendidly atmospheric. Hickox and his exceptional cast capture beautifully the escalating tension that makes the score so gripping in the theatre. Lisa Milne sings the Governess as finely as any on disc; more plumply prosaic than the usual tormented waif, her growing hysteria is all the more alarming. By contrast Diana Montague's Mrs Grose is unusually tall and patrician, but utterly convincing. Catrin Wyn Davies is a sensuous, eerie Miss Jessel, but Mark Padmore's Quint, though mellifluous, could use more supernatural menace... Caroline Wise and Nicolas Kirkby Johnson as the children, though, are ideal... and they sing with genuine expressive power. ...one of the truest opera films to date.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2005 ***** “What Katie Mitchell has devised is a highly evocative film to go with a performance of The Turn of the Screw. The result is very different from a conventional staging, with the singers, for much of the time, acting out their roles without being seen...A distinctive version with many great qualities, most of all in presenting the full horror of the story, set against an eerie background.” Penguin Guide, 2010 edition *** BBC Music Magazine DVD Choice - May 2005 |
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