Benjamin Britten operas are a rarity in Melbourne these days. Victorian Opera bucks the trend with The Turn of the Screw, a wonderfully tense and ambiguous gothic psychodrama.

Originally presented in 2022 by State Opera South Australia, this production directed by Stuart Maunder sees the six-strong cast – brilliantly led by Rachelle Durkin – exposed in multiple ways: musically, psychologically and literally on a set that’s simultaneously sparse and monumental.

Victorian Opera’s The Turn of the Screw. Photo © Jeff Busby

Premiering in Venice in 1954, The Turn of the Screw is an adaptation of the 1898 Henry James novella of the same name. An unnamed governess arrives at an English country house to care for two children, Flora and Miles. She has been told by their busy, absent guardian to never contact him, so housekeeper Mrs Grose is her only support.

The malevolent ghosts of former manservant Peter Quint and governess Miss Jessel haunt the children. The current governess finds herself in a grim battle for her charges’ innocence and sanity – or is she going mad, and solely responsible for their downfall?