Britten: The Turn of the Screw (complete opera) ~ Harding
This clearly, carefully played performance of what is certainly one of the world's spookiest operas is just about everything but spooky. Conductor  Daniel Harding has a feel for the music but not the atmosphere, and so some  moments are rushed which ought to be lingered over and vice-versa. Star tenor  Ian Bostridge sings the pivotal role of the ghostly Peter Quint with elegance  and beautiful tone--certainly two attributes his predecessors on CD lacked--but these are traits that work against the character. His eerie calling of  the boy's name over and over again early in the opera is a model of good  singing of difficult music, but that's not what we should be noticing. A  pity, since Joan Rodgers's Governess is near ideal in her combination of  terror, sadness, and weirdness. The children are convincing (though the Miles  is not as good as David Hemmings onBritten's own recording), and as  mentioned, the playing is near perfect and all the instruments in this  wonderfully, economically scored work are audible. This is a truly great  opera. You should own the Decca version, led by the composer himself, despite that it isn't up to this new one sonically. Bostridge fans will not be disappointed here, but Britten fans will want to hear Peter Pears in the role of Quint.--Robert Levine