Gergiev conducts Britten at the Mariinsky Theatre
(May 2006)
Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre paid tribute to Benjamin Britten in April with the company’s first staging of The Turn of the Screw in a new production by David McVicar.
This is only the Mariinsky’s second ever Britten opera, following a Russian language Peter Grimes dating from the Soviet era. After the successful premiere run in April further performances have been planned in St Petersburg as part of the White Nights Festival.
"David McVicar shrouds the stage in darkness, even blackness, for Britten’s retelling of Henry James’s ghost story set in an English country house… Props are minimal – variously, a bed, a writing table, an upright piano, and an ever-present hobbyhorse – with decaying sliding panels that looked vaguely oriental…The effects Britten achieves with his modest resources are not to be underestimated. Gergiev showed a thorough appreciation of them in his lucid reading of the score." International Herald Tribune
"David McVicar’s soul-numbing rendition of The Turn of the Screw plunges audiences into a powerful gothic atmosphere where the borders between the rational and the emotional are blurred… Valery Gergiev flowingly conducted the Mariinsky Orchestra through Britten’s challenging tonal score." St Petersburg Times
> Further information on Work: The Turn of the Screw
Photo: The Mariinsky Theatre's first production of Britten's The Turn of the Screw (Photo: Mariinsky Theatre/Natasha Razina)
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