It’s always been a bit of a mystery to me why Britten’s chamber operas are not done more often by smaller opera companies.  They use a modest orchestra (13 players for The Turn of the Screw), have equally modest sized casts, no chorus and they are in English.  They offer the chance to perform a work as written at much lower cost than grand opera and without the compromises inherent in downscaling works written on a larger scale.

So, I was delighted when Opera5 announced a production of The Turn of the Screw and attended last night’s first performance at Theatre Passe Muraille with high hopes and expectations (TL:DR they were pretty much met).  What I wasn’t expecting was a “concept” production.  It has been done before.  The UK company OperaUpClose set it in a mental hospital but it’s usually done “straight”.  Amanda Smith (with help from Daevyd Pepper) has created an ingenious framework in which the “other”; the nameless evil that afflicts Bly, is not sexual abuse or whatever we might traditionally think but the practice of Traditional Magic or Folk Healing; presumably instituted by the late Peter Quint and passed on to Miss Jessel and the chlldren.  It’s something that might provoke horror in a late Victorian of traditionally Christian views such as the Governess or, presumably, the head of Miles’ school (likely in this era to have been in Holy Orders).  It’s surprising how well the idea fits the libretto.  So much so that I found myself hearing lines I had never much noticed before.  The (not entirely satisfactory) ambiguity about who sees what when remains but if that’s a problem it’s not of Smith’s making.

The concept is realised on a set festooned with greenery where hidden alchemical symbols, feathers and strategically placed dead leaves abound to good effect.  The children; Miles played by Ryan McDonald and Flora by Thera Barclay, are splendidly childlike while singing with adult skill.  I wondered whether using a counter-tenor rather than a boy soprano would work for Miles but it did.  Asitha Tennekoon is effective as Peter Quint.  He’s not as sinister or spooky as some but that’s consistent with this production and his Quint worked on its own terms..  I was a bit troubled by the fact that his voice sounded rather different depending on where he sang from but that’s a TPM problem; the theatre offers tremendous staging potential but somewhat problematic acoustics.  Rachel Krehm’s Miss Jessel was more what one expects; troubled and spooky, but that’s consistent too.  How much did this Jessel “buy into” Quint’s magic and how much was the attraction sexual?

That leaves a thoroughly solid performance by Elizabeth Polese as the Governess and the expected veteran backbone of the production in Krisztina Szabó’s Mrs Grose.  Polese captures the doubt and inexperience of the young governess very effectively and Szabó is equally adept as the uncomprehending housekeeper; though in this version one might suspect she knows more than she’s telling.  Surely an older countrywoman cannot have been entirely ignorant of local folk practices?  Fine, idiomatic singing from both.

Diction across the board is excellent which is good because the surtitles are sometimes curiously hard to read.  The orchestra, under the baton of Evan Mitchell, brings out the magical colours of this score most effectively and their positioning off to one side doesn’t have too much of an effect on the “pit”/stage balance.  The acoustics really only go awry in a couple of quite heavily orchestrated quartets where it all becomes rather mushy but that, again, is the TPM acoustic.

The indie opera scene in Toronto has been very slow to come back after the Great Plague so it’s really encouraging to see one of the pre-Plague stalwarts return to live performance with a (sensibly) ambitious and very well executed production.

There’s another performance with an intern cast from McGill tonight (Thursday) with Wednesday’s cast back on stage Friday and Saturday.

Photo credits: Emily Ding