Ghosts Can Totally Freak You Out

Seattlest really hopes you took our advice back in March and bought tickets to Turn of the Screw, the Seattle Opera Young Artists’ Opera, because it is fabulous. We went last Friday and were very impressed. Very frightened and very impressed. (You can get a taste of the music and the staging in the video on this page.)

The story itself is pretty disturbing – basically, a boy and a girl become possessed by ghosts of people they once knew. We know, it doesn’t sound disturbing, but with the right lighting, spooky staging, and terrifically creepy music, believe us – it is. You can read a better synopsis here.

On the night we went, the members of the cast were Wesley Rogers (Peter Quint, one of the ghosts), Sarah Heltzel (Miss Jessel, the other ghost), Robyn Driedger-Klassen (the Governess), Teresa S. Herold (Mrs. Grose), Maureen McKay (Flora, the girl), and David Korn (Miles, the boy). This cast alternates with another cast, with Korn playing Miles in all performances.

The entire cast was impressive, but Driedger-Klassen stood out especially. Her portrayal of the Governess was very honest psychologically. In the second act, when she realizes that all her work to protect the children has been in vain, and she’s never been in control of the situation, Driedger-Klassen’s singing blew us away.

McKay and Korn both sang and acted together well. Since Korn is a male soprano, their voices were at times difficult to tell apart. McKay was particularly compelling; as a young girl possessed she was at times almost other-worldly, vacant and crazed. It was her vacant look toward the end, when she was being saved, that really got to us.

Rogers’ and Heltzel’s performances as the ghosts were also marvelous. Britten gave them very haunting music to sing, and they performed it well.

Unlike most operas written in the Golden Age of Opera (a term Seattlest uses loosely for all operas written before 1920), which contain recitative and arias, duets, trios, quartets, etc., Britten wrote Turn of the Screw in what sounds like one continuous stream. In other operas, recitative serves to move the drama along, while arias and ensemble pieces serve as pauses for reflection in the drama. Nothing happens in them; they are places where the characters express their feelings. In Turn of the Screw, the lack of discernable arias or other noticeable suspensions creates an almost suffocating atmosphere. There is no pause, no breathing room – things just keep getting freakier and freakier.

We thought the set was quite nice for a venue as small as the theater at Meydenbauer Center. It provided many eerie ways for characters to frighten each other – by suddenly appearing in cloudy windows or on the balcony. It was also versatile – some scenes were set outside, and some were set inside, all without moving one bit of the set.

Tickets for tonight, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon are still available, but are likely to go fast. Buy them here.