Based on the novella of the same name by Henry James, Britten’s opera The Turn of the Screw may be be seen as a duel between the forces of good and evil. The story is seen through the eyes of a young woman sent to take charge of two children, Miles and Flora who, although seemingly angelic and perfect in behaviour, are soon shown to have within them elements of precocious evil. Britten’s genius for creating vivid musical atmosphere is exercised in full through his evocative orchestration, the ‘screw’ gradually tightening until its culmination in an intensely dramatic and spine-chilling conclusion.