Richard Farnes - conductor

Andrew Kennedy - Prologue / Peter Quint
Sally Matthews - Governess
Michael Clayton-Jolly - Miles
Lucy Hall - Flora
Catherine Wyn-Rogers - Mrs Grose
Katherine Broderick - Miss Jessel

Released in celebration of the Britten anniversary year, Richard Farnes, the Music Director of Opera North who led their critically acclaimed production of The Turn of the Screw in 2010, conducts an all-English cast in Britten’s most ingeniously crafted opera, including Andrew Kennedy, Sally Matthews, and 11-year old Michael Clayton-Jolly in the role of Miles. Originally scheduled to be conducted by Sir Colin Davis, Richard Farnes was the natural replacement, himself having been mentored by the late conductor.

In 1932, the 18-year-old Britten heard on the radio ‘a wonderful, impressive but terribly eerie and scary play The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.’ Britten’s version of the ghost story, premiered in 1954, is a chamber opera in a prologue and two acts. The opera tells the story of a Governess and a housekeeper Mrs Grose who vow to protect two children, Miles and Flora from the strange happenings that occur in the grounds of their English country house.

***** ‘Filling in for concerts to have been conducted by the late Colin Davis, Farnes directs a taut, crisply-detailed account of Britten’s masterpiece. His cast is perfect: Kennedy a slyly seductive Quint; Matthews spot on in conveying the Governess’s growing horror and resolve; as telling a Flora and Miles as any on disc. Excellent Barbican sound.’ Classical Music (UK)