Happy Hallowe’en, readers! Time for some spooky opera.

I’m always looking for an excuse for more Benjamin Britten, and October 31st is a great time to revisit his notoriously creepy opera based on Henry James’ novella, The Turn of the Screw. It’s got ghosts, troubled kids, maybe a haunted house, maybe some mental illness, and the general eeriness of what I imagine is a damp, foggy English countryside. I saw it first at Oberlin College, and my walk home included going straight through a park after a storm, with tall trees and too many shadows. I’ve always loved mind-&@$# entertainment, and this one’s by Britten. So, enough said.

I love this production by Argentinian director Valentina Carrasco, put up in 2014 at Opéra de Lyon.