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
The Turn of the Screw a man and a woman, day and night, staring through the windows, bending over the beds, and making her feel her children were in danger. In a 2012 commentary in "The New Yorker", Brad Leithauser has given his own perspective on the different interpretations of James' novella: All such attempts to 'solve' the book, however admiringly tendered, unwittingly work toward its diminution[; its] profoundest pleasure lies in the beautifully fussed over way in which James refuses to come down on either side... the book becomes a modest monument to the bold pursuit of ambiguity. According to Leithauser, the reader is