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
The Turn of the Screw (2009 film) some critics. Whittaker, though generally critical of the film, felt it strongest when focussed on the house, children and ghosts. Paul Whitelaw, writing in "The Scotsman", commended Welch and Fywell for sustaining a horrific atmosphere, and noted that the soundtrack added to the horror. For him, even the use of horror clichés was effective, contributing to the film's atmosphere. "The Guardian"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Phil Hogan expressed a contrary opinion: while he thought "The Turn of the Screw" "exquisitely turned out", he felt the film's use of clichés limited the extent to which it was actually scary. In a review for "The Leader-Post",