It helps that the choice of opera is a lesser-known work and therefore the audience have little preconceptions about what to expect. Handel originally wrote it as an oratorio (concert style) in 1749, when Biblical stories weren’t permitted to be enacted on stage. It is based on a story from the Book of Daniel about Susanna who finds herself facing death after being falsely accused of adultery by two powerful, predatory men set on destroying her reputation and her marriage after she spurns their advances.

The themes of abuse of power, violence against women, corruption and gender-based injustice still have strong resonance today. And soprano Anna Dennis’ outstanding performance as Susanna reflects the deep trauma of this abuse that reverberates beyond her release. The integrity of the character is embodied in the purity and strength of her voice. At one point Dennis even sings lying down and it appears the song coming out is the most natural thing in the world – what strength!

The performance is also elevated by the onstage chemistry between Dennis and countertenor James Hall as her husband, Joacim. Hall’s openness and warmth makes for a stark contrast to the lustful deception of Colin Judson and Karl Huml’s Elders, dark performances that win them villainous pantomime boos at the curtain call.

While you may not be familiar with the music, it has the same recognisable Baroque majesty and dramatic energy of Handel’s coronation anthem ‘Zadok the Priest’ and the rousing chorus of his ‘Messiah‘.

Staging the story as an opera, with additional layers of the dancers and a deaf/British Sign Language performer on stage (Tianah Hodding), who is not simply signing the action but a fully integrated character, matches the grandiosity of the music in a way that is both imposing and absorbing.

The dancers are not simply background to the singing, often taking centre stage as an emotional interpretation of both the story and the music. For example, sometimes the dancers are almost dream-like interpretations of the central characters, while at other times they add depth to the narrative by reflecting more of the undercurrent themes of the story.

At times the sheer amount of activity on stage can feel overwhelming – like a high energy TikTok version for our 21st century short attention spans – although the length of the opera, particularly the 87 minutes before the interval suggests otherwise.

There are a couple of moments when the staging detracts from rather than enhances the singing. This could be an intentional part of the experimentation of this collaboration, making it clear that this is not simply opera with some dance, but something much more closely melded to create a new art form.

On the whole, however, this reimagining is bold, relevant and from the opening danced overture to the final curtain call – utterly engaging.

Opera North: Susanna was at Lowry, Salford on 14 November 2025.

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Howard is preaching (largely) to the converted (though he makes special reference to an unusually high number of opera newbies attending tonight’s show).

One Christmas Eve in 1950’s Paris, and four artsy young men (a poet, a painter, a musician and a philosopher) are shivering in their garret. Rodolfo, the poet, nobly consigns the script of his five act play to the stove to provide some warmth – all too little, all too brief.

Happily, the musician, Schaunard, fresh from an unusual assignment (playing for the pet parrot of an eccentric Englishman), comes home loaded with wine, bread and a little cash. The four friends resolve to “drink in, but eat out”. It is Christmas Eve and there are young women waiting to be charmed.

Rodolfo needs to finish an article he’s working on, but promises to join the other three later.

There’s a power outage. Rodolfo lights a candle then goes to answer a knock at the door. It’s Mimi, their neighbour. Her candle has gone out, so she’s come to ask for a light. Rodolfo invites her in and, within minutes, love blossoms.

For a contemporary viewer, it can be hard to take this sudden amour seriously, and in this revival, director James Hurley chooses to load it up with ham and cheese. I can see the temptation, but the three musical highlights (packed very tightly into the end of act one) are trying to tell us otherwise. Rodolfo doesn’t schmooze Mimi, he tries to help her see the wonders of the difficult path he has chosen (“Che gelida manina…”).

When she responds by singing her own autobiography, (“Si. Mi chiamano Mimi…”) she reveals a poetic soul beneath the beautiful exterior – a young woman touched by the delights of the changing seasons. In this version, Richard Moore’s lighting hampers rather than highlights the impact of Mimi’s words on Rodolfo. I know it’s meant to be candlelight, but we need to be moved by the emotional journey Rodolfo is embarking on, as well as by Mimi’s beautiful aria.

It’s traditional to close the love duet (“O, suave fanciulla…”) off stage, but here the two young lovers stay in full view. I think it works. Olivia Boen’s Mimi is not overpowered by Anthony Ciaramitaro’s Rodolfo (nor vice versa). It’s a strong finale.

From there, the production lumbers rather than skips. Musetta (Elin Pritchard), a renowned singer and former lover of the tempestuous artist, Marcello (Yuri Yurchuk) is now the consort of a wealthy man, many years her senior. When their paths cross again at the Café Momus, it is clear that, despite their protestations, the singer and the artist are far from done with each other. Or, at least, it ought to be clear. The staging here is leaden and alienating, with too much distance, physical and emotional, between the (allegedly) hot couple. We need Burton and Taylor but are given something nearer pantomime than passion.

Similarly, in act three, one of the dramatic highs, (the juxtaposition of the two young couples in crisis), loses much of its psychological complexity and emotional power when the audience’s focus is drawn to the raw violence of Marcello’s striking of Musetta, and away from the heart-rending inner conflicts of the doomed love between Rodolfo and Mimi.

Something is redeemed in act four – largely thanks to the fine acting of Ciaramitaro and Boen – but even here the sense of desperate urgency (friends rushing for medication, medical assistance, a fur muffin for Mimi’s poor hands, etc) never really takes off.

Six years ago, Michael Barker-Caven’s revival of this same Phyllida Lloyd original zinged off the stage. Tonight, not so. Perhaps, 30-odd years on, it’s time for ON to move on and re-imagine this classic from scratch.

Garry Walker conducts the Opera North orchestra with full awareness of the singers’ needs. Each of the four principles is vocally excellent, with Ciaramitaro’s Rodolfo winning my vote for tonight’s laurels. It all sounds lovely, so maybe just lean back, close your eyes and enjoy.

Opera North’s production of La Boheme is at Lowry, Salford as part of the company’s autumn season at Lowry from 12 to 15 November 2025.

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There was a palpable lightness in the Lowry’s large Lyric auditorium for Opera North’s high energy revival, which packages absurdity and wit alongside some tongue-twisting patter songs and a stunning set.

While the staging doesn’t quite take us back as far as the Victorian era in which the operetta was written, the whole experience is like stepping back in time, which only enriches the escapist experience.

The 2010 production by Jo Davies, now revived by James Hurley, is set in the silent movie era of the 1920s. This makes for a clever explanatory device at the start, with a black and white projected prologue during the overture setting the scene for what is to follow.
The story itself, silly as it is, is easy to follow. The show is part speaking and part sung in English, with surtitles at the side of the stage allowing the audience to catch even the fastest of rhymes.

The witch’s curse of the title falls to the Baronet of Ruddigore, and all who hold that title after him. The family curse forces him to commit a crime every day – most of which are comical like poking a Punch and Judy puppeteer through the curtain – or else face an agonising death. The hero, Robin Oakapple (Dominic Sedgewick), let his family think he was dead to escape the curse. Soon the world is upside down as Oakapple is forced to reveal his true identity as Ruthven Murgatroyd and take on the villainous curse, which at one point even involves some topical lyrical changes with both main political parties in the firing line.

The action swiftly moves from bedroom to coast, chapel to stately gallery – an impressive scene where the ghosts of Murgatroyd’s ancestors climb from their frames to haunt him to more evil ways.

There are a host of other colourful characters from Rose Maybud (Amy Freston) whose swinging moral compass is directed by a book of etiquette, and Mad Margaret (Helen Evora) who can only be pacified by hearing the word, ‘Basingstoke’. All involved are excellent – singers and orchestra.

It is imaginative, cheekily wicked, and most of all fun.

Ruddigore was at The Lowry on 14 November 2024.

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If you start out fearing opera is pretentious, an Ellen Kent show is a good way to confront and dispel those fears. The sets may be creaky, the costumes dated and the direction in need of refreshing. But the singers (garnered these days, mainly from Ukraine) are gifted, technically-accomplished and sincere in their commitment to the music.

On this tour, we have three operas: Verdi’s La Traviata, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, and tonight, Bizet’s Carmen.

We reviewed Carmen on Thursday. This famous opera tells the tale of a lovable mother’s boy, Corporal Don José, who is tempted into bad ways by sultry, smouldering gypsy, Carmen, who works at the tobacco factory in Seville (now a tourist attraction). Her particular skill (the tourist board website tells us) is to roll cigars between her thighs. (And they say smoking is bad for you!) After persuading her adoring soldier boy to desert and join her band of gypsy smugglers, this archetypal femme fatale then dumps him for the more glamorous toreador, Escamillo. Steaming hot temptress plus jilted latin lover… you can see where it’s heading.

Natalia Matveeva (who recently shone as the maid, Suzuki, in Butterfly) is an assured and rich-voiced Carmen. A truly modern incarnation of the role would recognise a deeper psychology – a capable, ambitious and passionate woman, whose only route to fulfilment lies through her sex appeal – but that’s for another company. 

Davit Sumbladze as Don José could sit a little more easily in his role but has a fine voice. Sumbladze’s rendition of “La fleur que tu m’avais jetée” in act two is quite beautiful. 

Escamillo, as performed by Iurie Gisca, is determined, in true toreador style, to be the centre of attention, belting out notes which fill this large victorian auditorium, whilst posturing after the manner of Miles Gloriosus (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, 1966). The audience roars its approval.

If you are already affirmed in your love of opera, and dreaming of Covent Garden, La Scala or the Met, this is not the Carmen for you.

On the other hand, if you like the music but fear you might feel out of place among those snooty cognoscenti (aka me and my intellectual middle class mates), an Ellen Kent production might prove just the “gateway drug” to live opera you’ve been seeking. 

Perhaps, one taste will be more than enough. Or perhaps, you’ll leave the theatre knowing you need more opera in your life. I hope you do.

Senbla presents Opera International’s award-winning Ellen Kent production featuring the Ukrainian Opera & Ballet Theatre Kyiv with international soloists at The Opera House Manchester from 10 to 12 January 2024.

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The entire opera is set at the very beginning of the twentieth century, with a single set – a small, paper and bamboo, traditional Japanese house, on a hill overlooking Nagasaki harbour. A young American naval officer, B.F. Pinkerton, awaits the arrival of his even younger Japanese bride-to-be, Cio-Cio San, known to one and all as Butterfly. Fifteen-year-old Butterfly (obliged to work as a geisha since her family fell on hard times) has sparked a burning desire in Pinkerton yet, even as he rhapsodises over his Japanese “prize”:

She is small and delicate, like a crystal figurine, he is already anticipating getting himself an American bride once he’s back home.

The guest of honour, Sharpless, the American Consul, betrays a tender regard for Butterfly, warning his young compatriot: “Be careful: she trusts us”.

Utterly besotted with her tall, strong American, Butterfly has converted to Christianity in his honour. Her family and friends, outraged by her rejection of their beliefs, turn their backs on her.

Despite proclaiming herself, ‘abandoned but happy’, Butterfly nevertheless is coy and fearful once alone with her newly contracted “husband”. She knows how completely her fate now lies in the hands of this virtual stranger from a faraway land.

As act one concludes, Pinkerton seduces his fragile bride, promising her – with thoughtlessly cruel irony:

            Love does not destroy.

Act two sees Butterfly and her faithful maid, Suzuki (played with forceful dignity by Natalia Matveeva) waiting patiently for Pinkerton to return to Nagasaki. He went back to America shortly after the wedding – now some three years past. Madama Butterfly – steadfastly insisting on being called Madama Pinkerton – refuses to accept her “marriage” is over, holding firm in her belief that, ‘one fine day’, her husband will come back to her.

Now eighteen, she is not without suitors – some of them wealthy – but she declines all offers. Why would she be seeking a husband when she already has one? She also has a blue-eyed son and, in the end, it is news of this child, not love for the mother, which draws Pinkerton back; with tragic consequences.

The Ellen Kent company have been touring productions featuring largely Eastern European singers for many years, now. As before, this cast features some fine singers. As well as Matveeva, Olexandr Forkushak gives us a humane and thoughtful Sharpless, sung with considerable gravitas. Pinkerton is a difficult role – how to add texture to callous and frankly lustful self-interest, and then, in act three, how to layer ruthless cruelty with believable human sensitivity. Vitali Liskovetskyi works hard throughout, and to decent effect.

In amongst this largely Ukrainian ensemble, Korean soprano, Elena Dee, constructs a noble and heart-rending Butterfly, blending grace and naive vulnerability with resolute devotion to honour and duty. The audience loves her and rightly so.

It’s hard to avoid the sense that there are voices here that could lift these productions to another level. A fresh-eyed designer would help (the company’s sets are becoming wearily traditional), but most of all, a skilled and ambitious theatre director, someone who could guide the cast in understanding and developing the inner lives of their characters. Singing at the house must give way to addressing and engaging with each other – this is where the true drama of opera lies for contemporary audiences.

While I’m indulging in a bit of a moan, I have to note, yet again, how audiences (post-Lockdown) seem to have forgotten the etiquette of theatre. Someone on my row announced (mid-act) to her companion, ‘It’s not really my kind of thing, all this high drama’. Fine, but do we all need to be told? A row back, during powerful displays of emotion on stage, another woman seems to have brought a sheet of bubble-wrap as her comfort blanket.

Pass the ceremonial dagger down here, Cio-Cio San. Perhaps we can persuade these people to do the decent thing…

Ellen Kent‘s Madama Butterfly was at the Opera House, Manchester on 26 Feb 2023. The company is staging two other operas at the venue the same week: La Boheme on 27 and Aida on 28 February.

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Verdi’s La Traviata (The Fallen Woman) has long been one of the most popular operas; loved for its drama, passion, and instantly recognisable score. Just minutes into Act I and the orchestra gets us into party mood with drinking toast ‘Brindisi’ (made popular by the Heineken ads) sung with gusto by Alfredo (Oliver Johnston).

As Parisian courtesan, Violetta, Maire Flavin is alight with passion. All eyes are on her – even through a huge peephole at the back of the stage. She emerges from a sea of writhing bodies on a bed, in a lavish scene of hedonism. From here it is clear there is a huge height from which to fall.

Director, Alessandro Talevi places the action in the Belle Epoque, which while more than a century after its original setting is not so long after the opera’s premiere in 1853. Europe hasn’t yet suffered the devastation of the first World War, and the pleasure seeking in Act I is symbolic of the continent’s golden age prosperity.

Act II takes us to the more relaxed setting of Violetta and Alfredo’s Country House. But here emotions run just as high when Stephen Gadd enters the home like an explosion as the father, Giorgio Germont.

The quieter third act, which sees Violetta confined to her bed with consumption, is less frantic but no less heart-wrenching.

The production is a revival of the company’s 2014 production, which Talevi also directed. He has returned to not simply revive but to refresh, and it does feel like this has been an opportunity to fine-tune and capture the full emotion of every scene.

In this production the principal roles have been double cast, to offer more performances on consecutive evenings. There are also two conductors. On Tuesday the orchestra was led by Manoj Kamps who expertly guides this compelling narrative as a rollercoaster of emotions through music.

It’s a definite catch it while you can experience.

Opera North La Traviata is at The Lowry from 15-17 November 2022.

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“I don’t think so.”

This is not to be found on anyone’s list of Sensible Answers. What was I thinking? That some rogue surgeon had crept up on me during my afternoon nap, popped the gadget in just for devilment, then slipped away again, unnoticed? I plead a certain discombobulation. It is strange to be back in a theatre. A good strange, to be sure, but unsettling.

We take our seats almost thirty minutes before the concert is scheduled to start. Peculiar, but necessary. If we try to act like ‘This’ is all over, when it clearly isn’t, we shall find ourselves taking more backward steps than forward ones.

There is no interval, therefore no ‘comfort break.’ Again, this is a wise precaution, but worth bearing in mind when you go to see Opera North’s “Night at the Opera.” And, please do go. It’s rather wonderful.

Try visualising a group hug with 50-odd musicians, a conductor and three vocalists, and you’ll have the gist of it.

Following the overture to Verdi’s Nabucco, conductor Paul Daniel introduces us to the twin themes for this curation – love and travel; each holding poignant currency for all present.

Soprano, Elin Pritchard begins with “Qui la voce..” from Bellini’s I Puritani. A lovely beginning. Her ovation is warm but less warm than she deserves. Her conductor mouths a quiet, “Brava!” in her direction. It’s a lovely moment. Such are the unexpected treasures of sitting in a half-empty, socially-distanced auditorium.

Benson Wilson’s tender baritone relishes, “O Du, Mein Holder Abendstern,” from Wagner’s Tannhäuser. Wilson has the looks, the build and the voice. With guidance from a skilled director, I expect, one day, he’ll make a memorable Scarpia.

The third of the evening’s singers is Maltese tenor, Nico Darmarin. It’s the first time I’ve heard him sing, and it really must not be the last. The range and colour, light and shade of his voice show such mastery of technique. Short of stepping into one of the world’s great opera houses, I expect the rendition of “Una Furtiva Lagrima,” (Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore) he gave tonight to remain unmatched. Bravissimo!

Daniel’s programme is expertly judged; familiar favourites (including Pritchard with a beautiful, vulnerable yet optimistic, “Mi Chiamo Mimi,” and the two men enjoying themselves with Bizet’s duet from The Pearl Fishers) alternate with rarer treats. Benson Wilson movingly delivers an aria from Eric Korngold’s post-World War One opera, Die Tote Stadt.

Daniel also, and rightly, invites acknowledgement of Opera North’s fine orchestra. We are, of course, delighted to oblige.

We step out into a beautiful summer’s evening. Life, as I recall, does get better than this – but not often.

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Fidelio is Beethoven’s only opera (he couldn’t get comfortable with the art form). It’s remarkable for several reasons besides this uniqueness. It has a celebrated chorus about the joys of freedom (bound to be poignant for tonight’s audience) and is a cautionary tale of how personal animosities can hold sway in times of political upheaval. Perhaps most strikingly of all, it features a genuinely active female protagonist.

Working as assistant warden in the state prison, Fidelio – a young man, sufficiently comely to have inadvertently won the heart of Marzelline, daughter of Rocco, the head warden – has a jealous rival, Jaquino. To complicate matters further, Fidelio is really Leonore, brave and faithful wife of Florestan – currently being starved in the dungeon, more for daring to cross the governor, Don Pizarro, than for his political beliefs.

News arrives of an imminent visit by the Minister, so Pizarro resolves to bring a swift end to his vulnerable enemy. When Fidelio is enlisted as an accomplice, Leonore vows to rescue her husband, or die in the attempt.

This concert production (i.e. no sets or action) makes the nifty decision to present the tale as a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. As convenor, Matthew Still brings the necessary gravitas and a crystal clarity of voice to relate the tale and help us make sense of matters in the absence of full dramatisation. (Still also gives fine singing voice to the Minister).

The device works all the better in making us focus on the music (ON’s orchestra conducted with seamless dynamism by Paul Daniel) and the voices.

Strong enough in solo sections, it is nevertheless in harmony and counter that the cast excels. The Act One quartet, “Mir ist so wunderbar,” is heart-meltingly warm, and no one does a rousing choral finale like Beethoven.

The score for the title role has some extremely demanding intervals (mainly high to low) but Rachel Nicholls handles them while managing the blend of boyish womanly required. Despite being (of necessity) rooted to the spot, we believe this Leonore is willing to die for her husband.

The sustained and haunting anguish of Florestan’s opening note is, in itself, enough to justify Toby Spence’s name on the team sheet – a chilling opening to Act Two.

It feels like old times when Robert Hayward gets a little booing (for all the right reasons) after his stint as the malicious Don Pizarro. We can but hope that Marzelline (a warm and witty performance by Fflur Wyn) will eventually yield to the entreaties of Paquino (Oliver Johnston gives us a needy suitor with no real harm in him).

My favourite voice of the night belongs to Brindley Sherratt’s Rocco. Sherratt has his woofers and tweeters perfectly balanced. His every contribution adds depth and dimension. Bravo.

The Opera North chorus, under Oliver Rundell, is always a pleasure.

“Let’s celebrate all the wonderful women,” as Sonnleithner’s libretto enjoins us. The men here are none too shabby, either.

Welcome back, ON. Here’s to a time when we can pack the house to salute you.

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The main thrust of the piece is rebirth or renaissance. Opera North’s epic production opens with three neighbours overwhelmed by the heatwave currently sweeping the city. The heatwave is a metaphor for the brewing tension that’s scheduled for the second act of the performance.

Director Matthew Eberhardt skilfully creates a confined and claustrophobic space where immigrants, from all walks of American life, mark the milestones of human existence. Within its walls there’s a pending funeral; a couple are expecting their first child; a graduation celebration; an eviction from the tenement block (for late rent payments); and rumours of an affair.

The Maurantt’s are the central characters of the piece. Anna (Giselle Allen) and Frank Robert Heywood) who exist in a loveless marriage have a daughter, Rose (Alison Langer) who is pursued by three suitors. Sam Kaplan, who’s played by Alex Banfield, is the archetypal ‘boy next door’, bookish and introverted; Harry Easter (Quirijn de Lang) delivers an chilling portrayal of how ‘men with power’ seek to use that influence to gain sexual gratification; and Vincent Jones (Christopher Naire) – Naire’s a brute who’s not afraid to use force or foul language to get what he wants.

The original play was set in and around the steps of a tenement block and had a multitude of characters all with interweaving storylines. It was perceived as so complex in its delivery that it was deemed akin to watching improvisation on stage. Weil’s decision to retell this story and adapt it to music stemmed from his desire to reinvent the American opera to develop a unique ‘dramatic opera’ that was both a ‘commercial and an artistic’ hit.

Opera North’s production successfully delivers this balance. It does so by remaining faithful to the original production and making the ‘tenement building’ a central character in the piece. Designer, Francis O’Conner formulates a huge steel tenement block, with its internal components exposed. There is a degree of transparency which enables the audience to be outside the building while seeing what’s inside at the same time.

The overarching thread of Street Scene beautifully blends spoken word and song to move the narrative forward. James Holmes’s conducting prowess merges poignantly with Langston Hughes’s lyrics. Hughes was, incidentally, brought on board specifically because of his ability to capture the vocal rhythm of New York’s working classes.

When Anna, Frank or Rose sing, they use common parlance and very often the lyrics they sing are prophetic, revealing their innermost beliefs or the painful circumstance that await them. This is beautifully demonstrated when Anna sings ‘Somehow I Never Could Believe’, a lament about her youth and dreams of love and romance; when Frank sings ‘Let Things Be Like They Always Was’ – a broken man expressing the age-old belief that life was always better in the past; or when Rose sings ‘What Good Would the Moon Be?’ – her inner-conflict, influenced by the suitors who seek her affection and her desire escape the mental prison she’s in.

Choreographer Gary Clarke captures the mood of the times with some beautiful routines. When Mae Jones (Michelle Andrews) and her love interest Dick McGann (Rodney Vubya) dance the Jitter Bug to ‘Moon-faced Starry-eyed’ the audience give a rousing response.

Although conceived in the late 1940s and not generating the box office returns of other lighter shows of the time; Street Scene, a dramatic opera, was a success on its own terms. Opera North’s production is a phenomenal success and proves that this work still has resonance in the 21st century.

Opera North is at The Lowry, Salford Quays from 10-14 March 2020.
Tue 10 Mar The Marriage of Figaro 7.00pm
Wed 11 Mar The Turn of the Screw 7.30pm
Thu 12 Mar The Marriage of Figaro (audio-described) 7.00pm
Fri 13 Mar Street Scene (captioned) 7.00pm
Sat 14 Mar The Marriage of Figaro 7.00pm

Five reasons why The Turn of the Screw is the scariest opera you’ll ever see.

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The set up is, to an extent, familiar: a governess arrives at a large country house, charged with the care of two children, who aside from a friendly housekeeper are its only occupants. Although her charges appear lively and good-natured at first, all is not what it seems and the governess is soon faced with ghostly apparitions and terrifying truths.

The intricacies of the plot, however, are not particularly easy to follow with no prior knowledge of James’ work. While the libretto by Myfanwy Piper maintains suspense with a gradual unfolding of events, you also get the feeling that Piper concealed key snippets of character and plot development in single lines, which – coupled with occasionally uneven sound levels and some unclear diction on the night – leaves frustrating gaps right until the end.

Plot-based quibbles aside, everything about Alessandro Talevi’s production is designed to enhance the sinister nature of the story. Matthew Kaskins’ lighting design builds atmosphere, creating murky depths in the corners of the stage and allowing the ghosts to appear and vanish again with a speed that startles.

Madeleine Boyd’s set design features a huge angled wall and window which loom over the characters, a translucent door used to great effect for fleeting glimpses of shadowy figures, and cornerstones of Victorian Gothic horror: an independently moving rocking horse and a four-poster bed. However, the multi-purpose nature of the set doesn’t help with the lack of clarity around the plot – it’s often hard to tell where scenes are happening, and whether all the characters onstage are witnesses to the action.

It is Benjamin Britten’s music, however, that really sets the tone. Eerie and unsettling throughout, it employs wavering strings and woodwind to build tension, bursts of percussion at moments of drama, and in one memorably unnerving scene, chiming church bells.

The six strong cast maintain the atmosphere with their performances, particularly Eleanor Dennis as the terrifying Miss Jessel and Jennifer Clark as a menacing young Flora – her puppet show scene on top of the four poster bed frame, lullabying her governess to sleep, is enough to give anyone nightmares.

The Turn of the Screw is an experience that scares with subtlety and entertains with atmospheric music, but it’s definitely one that requires a synopsis to be read before curtain up.

Opera North is at The Lowry, Salford Quays from 10-14 March 2020.
Tue 10 Mar The Marriage of Figaro 7.00pm
Wed 11 Mar The Turn of the Screw 7.30pm
Thu 12 Mar The Marriage of Figaro (audio-described) 7.00pm
Fri 13 Mar Street Scene (captioned) 7.00pm
Sat 14 Mar The Marriage of Figaro 7.00pm

Five reasons why The Turn of the Screw is the scariest opera you’ll ever see.

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