As if Britten's Turn of the Screw needed to be made any creepier, Annilese Miskimmon's new production turns it into a ghost story within a ghost story. The setting is now, or at least a few decades ago; Bly, the creaky country house of the story, has become a boys' boarding school, and the Prologue is sung by a teacher wearing a lab coat. The tenor Robin Tritschler looks uneasy, as well he might: in Miskimmon's concept this single classroom is the setting for every episode of Henry James's story, and when Tritschler and his pupils make brief, mute reappearances during the interludes, they brush past half a dozen ghosts.
It doesn't add much to our understanding of a story that is, anyway, intentionally elusive. But it works, because the classroom setting suits the wide, shallow stage of the Holland Park theatre, and because Miskimmon enables each of the singers to hold that stage so well. Elin Pritchard's rich-voiced Miss Jessel is able to sneak up on us at her first appearance because our attention is so completely focused on the others. The classroom cupboards, with their tall glass windows, that form most of the back wall of Leslie Travers's set, offer more opportunities for ghostly apparitions.
The whole thing has the virtue of simplicity; what it lacks, though, is domesticity. This space is entirely institutional and depersonalised – which plays against the fact that the ghosts' pursuit of the two children is very personal indeed.
Dominic Lynch and Rosie Lomas characterise the children brilliantly, suggesting a sapping of innocence that is already well under way. The US tenor Brenden Gunnell is a commanding but agile-voiced Peter Quint, Diana Montague a luxurious late stand-in as Mrs Grose, the housekeeper. Ellie Laugharne shines as the Governess, saving herself for the final moments, but her voice gleaming throughout, and the 13 instrumentalists, paced with the skill of long experience by Steuart Bedford, capture the score's understated, insinuating beauty.
• Until 12 July. Box office: 0300 999 1000. Venue: Opera Holland Park, London.
