Well, it's finally here. The big night out that I've been talking about and thinking about and planning about since Christmas! Tonight, Craig and I are leaving our child for the longest we've ever left her and are heading downtown (a big event in and of itself) to see Benjamin Britten's operatic rendition of Henry James's famed ghost story, "The Turn of the Screw."
SUPER EXCITED!
I've done my homework too. Britten's modern (and English!) opera is unique in that it's written as a "chamber opera," which means it only has something like 12 instruments. What makes it stand out even further is his use of variations. Every song is written using the same 12 tone theme arranged in different ways. I actually bought the CD after we purchased our opera tickets and have been listening to it for about a month now. It's fascinating! And the songs are literally titled "Variation 1," "Variation 2," etc. It also creates just the perfect chilling, haunting kind of mood that a spooky ghost story set out on a lonely English country house deserves.
I actually hadn't read the book prior to purchasing our tickets (shame on me, supposed master of English!), but it's a short read and Craig and I both managed to finish reading it already. As we started reading it, we realized we've already seen the movie version ("The Innocents," 1961). VERY spooky! And I've seen plenty of spooky ghost movies in my time!
In case you haven't caught on yet, I've been very excited about this night for a long time now! Which is why I shouldn't at all be surprised that Evelyn picked up a cold a couple days ago. As I fed her breakfast this morning, she literally had strings of snot suspended from her nostrils to her chin that I had to continually swipe at. Each swipe resulted in her tears and my thinking, "I'm so not missing the opera for this!" Praise God we have a very capable sitter all lined up who Evelyn knows and loves. She'll be quite alright. (But I'll probably obsessively check my phone for texts all night!)
Here's a recording of the prologue, if you're interested.
