Tuesday, 22 November 2022

Music I Like, #22, Malo, malo - The Turn of the Screw (Benjamin Britten)

The last live performance I saw before the pandemic shut everything down was Opera North's production of Turn of the Screw. The plot of the opera is based on a novella by Henry James, about an unnamed governess who cares for two children, Miles and Flora, in a house that may or may not be haunted. Ghost stories suit opera and operas suit ghost stories. Turn of the Screw is splendidly unsettling.

Miles' aria 'Malo, malo' is one of the eeriest bits. Enjoy.

 

PS The lyrics Miles is singing are half in Latin, half in English. For an interesting discussion of the meaning behind them, see this article by Valentine Cunningham (which makes me want to listen to the Bad Gays podcast episode on Benjamin Britten.)

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