The Turn of the Screw (opera) The Turn of the Screw (opera) The Turn of the Screw is a 20th-century English chamber opera composed by Benjamin Britten with a libretto by Myfanwy Piper, "wife of the artist John Piper, who had been a friend of the composer since 1935 and had provided designs for several of the operas". The libretto is based on the novella "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James. The opera was commissioned by the Venice Biennale and given its world premiere on 14 September 1954, at the Teatro La Fenice, Venice. The original recording was made during that year, with the
Henry Forbes (composer) George Forbes (1813–1883) in concerts, and was between 1827 and 1850 conductor of the Società Armonica. He died on 24 November 1859, in his fifty-sixth year. Henry Forbes (composer) Henry Forbes (1804–1859) was an English pianist, organist and composer. Forbes was a pupil of George Thomas Smart, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Ignaz Moscheles, and Henri Herz, and had greater success as executant and teacher than as composer. While organist of St Luke's Church, Chelsea, a London church, he published (1843) "National Psalmody", containing some original numbers. His opera "The Fairy Oak" was disliked by the critics, but had a run of