The Turn of the Screw (opera) composer conducting. Described as one of the most dramatically appealing English operas, the opera in two acts has a prologue and sixteen scenes, each preceded by a variation on the twelve-note 'Screw' theme. Typically of Britten, the music mixes tonality and dissonance, with Britten's recurrent use of a twelve-tone figure being perhaps a nod to the approach of Arnold Schoenberg. Thematically, the play gives a central role to a line borrowed from W. B. Yeats' poem "The Second Coming": "The ceremony of innocence is drowned." The opera was given its British premiere on 6 October 1954 by the Sadler's Wells
James Baker (composer) James Baker (composer) James Baker is an American electro-acoustic composer, percussionist and conductor. James Baker graduated with degrees in music from SUNY Purchase and Juilliard, where he studied percussion and conducting. He began a long time collaboration with choreographer Tere O'Connor and has composed numerous works for Tere O'Connor Dance, including Bessie Award winner "Heaven Up North". He was also the composer for "Like Two Kevins" for the Lyon Opera Ballet. His works have been performed internationally. Baker works as Principal Percussionist for the New York City Ballet Orchestra and serves as director of the Percussion Ensemble at the New