Faculteit Letteren & Wijsbegeerte
Marieke Van Renterghem
The Turn of the Screw by Benjamin
Britten. A Discussion of the
Adaptation of Henry James’s ovel
and an Analysis of the Dutch Surtitles
to the Opera.
Masterproef voorgedragen tot het behalen van de graad van
Master in het Vertalen
2014
Promotor Prof. Dr. Lieve Jooken
Vakgroep Vertalen Tolken Communicatie
AKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my very great appreciation to a number of persons: Dr. Lieve Jooken,
my supervisor, for her constructive suggestions during the development of this dissertation,
and Johan Wijnants, for introducing me to the world of surtitling and for giving me useful
advice and remarks on the present work. I would also like to express my gratitude to Ilse Van
Renterghem for reviewing this dissertation during the writing process, Dominique Van
Renterghem for helping me with the technical problems I encountered, and my parents, for
giving me the opportunity to follow these studies and for supporting me throughout them.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.
INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................................4
1.1.
The writer ...................................................................................................................4
1.2.
The composer .............................................................................................................5
1.3.
A short history of opera ..............................................................................................6
2.
OPERA SURTITLING.......................................................................................................8
3.
THE OPERA ADAPTATION OF THE TUR OF THE SCREW...................................12
3.1.
The novel ..................................................................................................................12
3.2.
The opera ..................................................................................................................14
3.2.1. General Background ...............................................................................................14
3.2.2. Adaptation ..............................................................................................................15
3.2.3. Interpretation ..........................................................................................................18
4.
ANALYSIS ......................................................................................................................22
4.1.
Method......................................................................................................................22
4.2.
Reduction..................................................................................................................23
4.2.1.
Omission...........................................................................................................25
4.2.1.1. Redundancy .....................................................................................................25
4.2.1.2. Contradiction ...................................................................................................28
4.2.1.3. Overlap ............................................................................................................29
4.2.2. Compression ...........................................................................................................31
4.2.2.1. Overlap ............................................................................................................31
4.2.2.2. Style .................................................................................................................32
4.3.
Reception aid ............................................................................................................33
4.3.1. Style ........................................................................................................................33
4.3.2. Specification ...........................................................................................................38
5.
CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................41
REFERENCE LIST ..................................................................................................................43
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1.
INTRODUCTION
The opera that will be discussed in this dissertation, was based on the novel The Turn of the
Screw, written by Henry James. To situate the present work, a short overview will be given of
the life and work of Henry James (1.1.), based on Encyclopedia of World Biography (2004)
and The Columbia Encyclopedia (2013). The life and work of Benjamin Britten will also be
discussed briefly (1.2.), on the basis of information taken from Encyclopedia of World
Biography (2004), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music (1996), Contemporary Musicians
(1996) and Encyclopaedia Britannica online (n.d.). An introduction to the history of opera
will be provided as well (1.3.).
1.1.
THE WRITER
Henry James was born on April 15, 1843 in New York City. He is considered one of the
major novelists of his era. His father, Henry, was a theologian and his brother, William, a
philosopher. He spent his youth both in America and Europe, and was privately educated.
James attended Harvard Law School for one year in 1862, but decided to focus on a writing
career, and in the following years he wrote several critical articles and reviews that were
published in the Atlantic Monthly. He travelled a lot to different places in Europe, and
published his first novel, Watch and Ward, in 1870. In 1876 he finally settled in London. He
achieved his first success as a writer in Europe and the US with his short novel Daisy Miller
(1879). From 1889 to 1895, Henry James shifted his attention to writing plays, but after the
failure of his play Guy Domville in 1895, he abandoned his effort to become a popular
playwright and focussed on writing again. In 1898, James, who was still a bachelor and
remained unmarried until his death, settled in Lamb House, Rye. In the same year he also
wrote The Turn of the Screw. His late novels, among which The Wings of Dove (1902), The
Ambassadors (1903) and The Golden Bowl (1904), are often considered his best work. In the
1900s, he started revising his fiction and wrote critical prefaces to his stories, which resulted
in the definitive New York edition of his writing. James is known as a technique innovator
who developed a particular writing style to express the nuanced thoughts and point of view of
his characters, which is seen as the foundation of modern stream of consciousness fiction. In
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1911 and 1912 respectively, he received honorary degrees from Harvard and Oxford. During
World War I, he worked as a volunteer and in 1915 he officially became a British subject. A
few weeks before James’s death, King George V awarded him the Order of Merit. As of 1909
James had suffered from various illnesses, eventually leading to his death on February 25,
1916.
1.2.
THE COMPOSER
Benjamin Britten was born on November 22, 1913 in Lowestoft, England and is considered
one of the most outstanding British composers of the 20th century. He was also known as a
pianist and conductor. His father, Robert Britten, was a dentist, and his mother, Edith Rhoda,
an amateur singer. Britten started composing from a very young age and, while attending
school, he studied several years with composer Frank Bridge. In 1930 he was granted a
scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music. After his graduation, he started working
for the British General Post Office and was responsible for composing music for a series of
documentary films. On set, he befriended W.H. Auden and they regularly collaborated on
works of political and social commentary, such as Our Hunting Fathers (1936) and Ballad of
Heroes (1939). In 1939, Britten and his life partner Peter Pears left England for the United
States, but they already returned in 1942. In the period of the Second World War, Britten was
very productive and creative. During this period he wrote his very successful opera Peter
Grimes (1945), which established him as a composer. Later, in 1962, he also wrote one of the
most famous classical pieces, War Requiem. Destroyed or threatened innocence, persecution
of the outsider in society and cruelty are some of the recurrent themes that Britten dealt with
in his operas, including the chamber opera The Turn of the Screw, after Henry James, which
premiered at the Venice Biennale in 1954, Billy Bud (1951) and Owen Wingrave (1970). As a
composer, he showed a tendency to experiment with different modern styles, forms and new
theatrical environments.
In 1946, Britten was involved in the formation of the English Opera Company, which was
aimed at promoting and revitalizing English opera, a genre that did not receive much support
in England at that time. In 1948, Britten and Pears also founded the Aldeburgh summer
festival. In 1953 Britten was created Companion of Honour and in 1965 he received the Order
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of Merit. In 1976, Britten was the first musician to be granted a life peer. He died later that
year, on December 4, 1976.
1.3.
A SHORT HISTORY OF OPERA
A number of works have already been dedicated to the history of opera and the more recent
history of surtitling. This section, which gives a short introduction to opera, is entirely based
on Golomb (2005), Halliwell (2005), Desblache (2007), Mateo (2007), Mateo (2012),
Chalmers (2013), Desblache (2013) and Page (2013).
The opera genre originated in Italy during the Renaissance as an attempt to revive the Greek
tragedies. In the first operas, prominence was given to the text. Soon, however, Claudio
Monteverdi started to put more emphasis on the musical part of the opera. In the centuries
following, there was a continuous tension between the importance that theorists and
practitioners gave to the words and music respectively. Today, however, focus has shifted
from one of both elements, to the performance in its entirety, including text, music and
production, which has also been made possible by the introduction of surtitles.
For years, Italian and French were the predominant languages that composers used in opera.
This changed at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when operas were increasingly
performed in translation, as a consequence of the growing influence of national identities.
During the course of the century, operas would be performed in the original language in
established institutions, while other houses offered operas in the language of the audience.
This was still the case during the first half of the twentieth century, but has changed more
recently, as of the 1970s approximately. It became custom to stage operas in their original
language and the audience was assumed to enjoy the performance without a complete
understanding of the text. This view was somewhat different from the centuries before, when
opera-goers had the possibility to understand the whole text directly during the performance
by means of a printed translated libretto. After the introduction of a black-out in the theatre in
the mid-nineteenth century, however, this practice gradually disappeared.
Since the introduction of the first opera surtitles in the 1980s, the surtitling practice has
become widespread and has led to a significant improvement in accessibility, and a
7
considerable increase in the number of opera spectators. Even though a considerable number
of critics, singers and directors were initially opposed to the use of surtitles, it has been shown
that most members of the audience really appreciate them. Surtitles have influenced the
expectations of the audiences, who now wish to understand the plot and characters at real time.
Surtitles have broadened the opera repertoire that the institutions offer as well as given
companies the possibility to cut costs. Today, intralingual surtitles, i.e. surtitles in the
language of the performance, are also often used.
This dissertation has two main goals. Firstly, it investigates the choices that Benjamin Britten
and Myfanwy Piper made in connection with the opera adaptation of Henry James’s novel
The Turn of the Screw. One of the questions that will be discussed in this dissertation, is
whether James’s novel is an adequate source to turn into an opera. The question whether and
how the story’s ambiguity was transferred to the opera will also be dealt with. A few
researchers have already written on the topic, and it is the aim of this dissertation to provide
an overview of the present situation. Secondly, this dissertation will also discuss the surtitling
strategies that were used for the Dutch surtitles to the opera. This part will mainly deal with a
qualitative discussion of the used strategies for composing the surtitles, but it will also include
a quantitative comparison. As will be discussed further, reduction is the most frequently
adopted strategy when it comes to surtitling. Analogous with Griesel’s (2007) work on
surtitles in the theatre, the supposition is made that omission, a particular form of reduction,
will be the most used strategy for the opera. It will also be investigated how the reduction of
the libretto is spread over the complete opera.
The present dissertation is divided in two main parts. First there is a theoretical part, which
discusses the characteristics of surtitling, while focussing on surtitling conventions and the
process involved in creating surtitles (Chapter 2), as well as deals with the adaptation of
Henry James’s novel into Benjamin Britten’s opera version (Chapter 3), in which attention is
given to certain aspects of Henry’s writing and the changes that were introduced by Britten
and his librettist Piper. The work also contains an empirical part (Chapter 4), in which the
different surtitling strategies are analysed on the basis of the Dutch surtitles that were used for
The Turn of the Screw.
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2.
OPERA SURTITLING
This Chapter will give an overview of surtitling conventions, and the process of creating
surtitles, based on the following works: Virkkunen (2004), Desblache (2007), Mateo (2007),
Burton (2008), Remael-Vermeulen (2010), Wijnants (2011), Mateo (2012), Page (2013) and
Palmer (2013).
Surtitles are abridged translations of the libretto into the language of the audience that are
projected simultaneously with the sung text. Originally, surtitles were projected above the
stage, but nowadays, some opera houses, such as the Metropolitan Opera in New York, have
also introduced smaller screens showing the titles in front of each seat. The individual operagoer can decide for himself whether to turn on these so-called seatback systems or not and he
can opt for one of the languages available. Surtitles are part of a multi-medial art form, and,
accordingly, are interdependent on both the original libretto and the actions and indications on
stage. Coherence is an important factor of the performance; contradiction between all the
elements should therefore be avoided.
Most works on surtitling agree that surtitles should be primarily used to facilitate
comprehension and only give the audience a general meaning of the source text, and that they
do not have to contain every detail of the original libretto. Ideally, the audience should not
even notice that there are any surtitles. They are supposed to complement the overall
performance and not distract the audience’s attention from the other elements of the
production. It is generally accepted that surtitles should be clear, concise and easy to read and
interpret, and also be faithful to the original text in case of a conflict with the production. The
meaning of the original text cannot be changed. It is, however, possible to avoid the conflict,
for example, by omitting certain details.
To limit the chance that the audience gets distracted for too long by reading the titles, certain
rules are applied. Although every company has its own rules, there are standard conventions
in connection with layout and punctuation. It is advisable, for example, to show two short
lines instead of a long one in a caption, and to introduce the line-split at a grammatically
logical point in a sentence. The used font should be easily legible and is preferably white.
Dashes are used to distinguish between different voices on stage, italics for emphasis,
characters singing or speaking offstage, a quotation, or the contents of a letter, while dots are
9
used to indicate hesitation or a sentence break across two captions. This makes it possible to
delay the displaying of a punch line until the words are actually sung.
Surtitling also involves dependence on the music for the timing of the surtitles. The amount of
text projected on the screen during the performance is usually limited to two lines per title
with a maximum of approximately 70-80 characters. This has repercussions for the target text.
About one third up to one half of the source text is generally reduced. The reduced amount
depends for a large part on the music, which influences the distribution of the text into
captions and, additionally, the exposure time of the surtitles. Each caption has to be shown at
the moment when the performers are singing the lines, and has to be projected long enough
for the audience to read it. To this end, for example, vocabulary, syntax and punctuation are
simplified, and repetitions and unnecessary details are often deleted. In case of a lot of
repetition, titles can be displayed longer or sometimes repeated later. Greetings are often left
out and fast exchanges combined, simplified, or omitted. When possible, each caption should
constitute a closed unit. Surtitles should be transparent and convey the meaning of the text,
the singers, then, transfer the style of the libretto.
Moreover, the surtitle author will also frequently have to take into account the particular stage
interpretation and performance and not only the libretto when deciding which parts of the text
should be omitted and which roles should be highlighted, especially in the case of duets and
ensembles. When different lines are sung simultaneously, the most important lines should be
shown. This depends on the score, the interpretation of the conductor and singers, and the
audibility of each singer. These decisions are likely to be made during the rehearsals.
Of course, it might also be an important issue for the audience that the text remains credible,
and this partly depends on the portion of the libretto that is used in the surtitles.
Before surtitles can be projected during an opera performance, a whole procedure involving
different actors has to be followed. Depending on the fact whether there is an existing
translation or not, the libretto is first translated and afterwards adapted to meet the
requirements of the surtitles. These tasks might be performed by the same person or by two
different persons. The responsible surtitle author is usually commissioned well in advance and
receives the score and any relevant information about the production. As has already been
pointed out, the surtitle author should take into account a considerable number of
constrictions and conventions. After the author has composed the surtitles, he returns the
marked-up score with a corresponding script. These documents contain exact indications as to
when each title is supposed to appear, to ensure that the surtitles appear at the same moment
10
during different performances of the opera. The surtitles are introduced into the programme
used by the opera house and the surtitlers then test where and how quickly the captions should
appear and disappear, whether the number of titles is good, and if they have to be split or put
together, on the basis of a recording of the opera. After this session, the documents are edited
for the rehearsals, and copies of the script are distributed to, amongst others, the director and
conductor, who have the possibility to comment on it. During the rehearsals, possible
discrepancies between the titles and action on stage are identified, and the surtitle author and
surtitlers work together to modify the text so as to it complements the production and meets
the requirements of the director. After the dress rehearsal, the last changes are introduced on
the basis of the audience’s reaction. In some cases, surtitle authors are also responsible for
projecting the surtitles.
During the performance, the surtitle operator projects the right captions at the correct time on
the basis of the marked-up score, checking at the same time if the correct title is cued. For the
discussed opera, however, a text script was used to cue the titles instead of a marked-up score.
This way, it is possible to wait until the first word of a title or a specific cue word is sung
before projecting the captions, to ensure that the surtitles remain in the background. Every
opera performance is different, depending on the different actors involved, i.e. the conductor,
singers, chorus and orchestra. The tempo of the music may vary, for example, and singers
might forget to sing certain lines. Therefore, surtitles have to be projected live to be able to
meet possible changes per performance.
Even though there exist certain conventions in connection with surtitling for opera, there is,
however, not one definitive method that is used by all surtitlers. Virkkunen (2004)
distinguishes two separate general surtitling strategies that are used as point of departure for
the creation of surtitles. The first one treats the libretto as its source text, and tends to remain
as close as possible to it, and consequently this method involves a larger number of titles and
uses considerably more repetition than the second strategy, which departs from the particular
stage interpretation of the opera and wants to present the essential contents only. The former
strategy, however, could always be restricted by the absence or presence of certain props, the
particular stage interpretation, and of course the tempo and rhythm of the performance.
Restrictions as to what the surtitler can project on the screen, might also lead to inevitable
reduction of the text. Of course, the aforementioned strategies are two extreme approaches
and it should be considered that every surtitle author may have his own unique strategy.
Wijnants (2011), for example, argues that it would be interesting to experiment with the
11
maximum number of lines that are displayed at the same time and also to try to reflect more
of the original libretto style. Various software and projection systems are currently in use to
display surtitles in the opera, including PowerPoint. All of these systems have their own
requirements and possibilities in connection with layout and projection. PowerPoint, for
example, is more flexible in terms of the total number of characters and lines that can be
displayed in one caption, and is by some surtitlers already used to display more text in
comparison with other systems.
For the performance of the discussed opera in Oosterzele, for which PowerPoint was used, the
titles had to be projected on a sidewall, because no screen was available. To facilitate the
legibleness and enhance the possible reading speed, it was decided to show a total of three
shorter lines instead of two longer ones in one caption, when necessary. For the performance
in Ghent, the titles, which were this time displayed in two lines above the stage, were aligned
to the left, because the scene, and consequently the stage action, was positioned more to the
left to make room for the orchestra on the right.
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3.
THE OPERA ADAPTATION OF THE TUR OF THE SCREW
This part of the dissertation will focus on the adaptation of Henry James’s novel The Turn of
the Screw into the opera of the same name by Benjamin Britten. Before an analysis of the
adaptation is given, however, it is important to provide a general overview of the novel itself
and the different interpretations that are given to the story.
3.1.
THE NOVEL
Leonard Orr’s reader’s guide (2009) on James’s The Turn of the Screw offers an insightful
look on the novel and is used as the main source of information for the discussion of this part,
unless indicated otherwise. The Turn of The Screw was first published as a serial in Collier’s
Weekly in 1898. During the nineteenth century it became common practice to serialize novels
in a journal, before they were published in their final form. This left a mark on the features of
the novel. Orr (2009) notes that the structure of the Victorian novel was clearly delimited:
Serial publication allowed for broadly drawn characters (…) for aiding the readers’
memories (…) The aesthetic norm was to have strong closure, displaying poetic
justice, and often an epigraph indicating what “happens” with all of the characters
after the end of the plot. The reader was not allowed to stray from a predetermined
interpretation: there were prefatory comments by an omniscient narrator who would
appear periodically to make sure the reader was understanding the moral or social
message at each juncture.” (pp. 22-23)
In The Turn of the Screw, however, Henry James did not follow the contemporary
conventions of the popular novel, e.g. he did not use an omniscient narrator and he refused to
restrict the reader’s view to one definitive interpretation of his story. He did, however, meet
the contemporary readers’ expectations to a certain extent, since his novel can be read as a
ghost story and at the time of its first publication, people from all layers of the population
were fascinated by the supernatural atmosphere of the work. Moreover, the composition of the
story was conform to the conventional tragic plot.
The Turn of the Screw starts with a frame story, in which information is given about an
anonymous governess, the first-person narrator of the main story, and the situation involving
13
her employment at Bly. After this introduction, the rest of the novel is viewed from the
perspective of the governess, who writes about her experiences at Bly. There is no return to
the frame setting on any occasion.
In short, the governess’s story can be summarized as follows: She arrives at Bly to take care
of Miles and Flora. At first, she considers the children the most perfect beings, despite the
arrival of a letter from Miles’s school communicating his dismissal, the exact reason(s) of
which remain unspecified throughout the novel. After a while, the governess starts to see
apparitions. This only happens on a few occasions. First she sees the apparition of a man,
which, on the basis of a conversation with the housekeeper, Mrs Grose, is later revealed to be
Peter Quint, a deceased former servant of her employer. She also sees and feels the presence
of someone else, whom she intuitively claims must be Miss Jessel, the dead former governess.
She initially decides that she has to fight these evil influences to protect the children, but later
on in the novel she realizes it is already too late, that the children are under the influence of
the ghosts, and as a consequence, she starts to mistrust everything Miles and Flora do and say.
The novel ends with Mrs Grose and Flora leaving Bly and the governess confronting Miles
about the letter from school and Peter Quint. After his final confession of having stolen the
letter and an ambiguous exclamation of Peter Quint’s name, Miles dies in her arms, which is
where the story ends.
Since its first publication, the novel has given rise to many questions, such as the reason for
Miles’s expulsion from school, the exact nature of the relationship between Peter Quint and
Miss Jessel, their influence on the children, and the situation surrounding their respective
deaths. However, the most debated issue focuses on the reliability of the narrator, and
consequently on the trustworthiness of the apparitions. There are two main readings of the
story. One interpretation supports the reading of the novel as a ghost story dealing with the
corruption of the children by the apparitions of the dead servants, while the other
interpretation consists of treating the governess as an unreliable narrator and the apparitions as
imaginary projections of her mind which are caused by hysteria. Halliwell (2005)
distinguishes between the “apparitionists” and “non-apparitionists” (p. 117), while Howard
(1985) uses the terms “the first story” and “the second story” (p. 23) to refer to these concepts.
According to Orr
One reason for James not to have used his customary omniscient third-person narrator
is because of the question of reliability that can be opened. While the omniscient
14
narrator is presumptively reliable, all first-person narrators must develop and sustain
the readers’ trust in their representation of events or their interpretations of the other
characters (Orr, 2009, p. 26).
Readers should therefore keep in mind that they might be dealing with a distorted
representation of reality and that there is not any proof of the existence of the ghosts apart
from the governess’s own words. First of all, there is no evidence that anyone else sees the
appearances, and, paradoxically, the governess uses this fact to argue that the children are
somehow involved with the ghosts. Furthermore, she reacts counterintuitively to each
apparition and always seems to jump to conclusions without any proof. Finally, she is always
thinking in extremes. The children are either evil or perfect and pure, she does not consider
the possibility of normality.
The question of the reality of the ghosts will most probably never be resolved. Halliwell
(2005) notes that there is now also a third possibility, which allows for both interpretations of
the story simultaneously. The focus of recent work has primarily shifted to either gender and
queer studies or class and history. At the time of the publication of The Turn of the Screw,
class consciousness was a hallmark of daily life, so class differences and associations in the
novel were obvious to the readers. This, however, might not be the case to readers today. The
evil influence might be solely constituted by the fact that class is deliberately ignored, e.g.
because Quint spent a lot of time with Miles, despite of the class difference between them.
The impropriety of their relationship, however, might also imply a homoerotic connotation
(see Clippinger, 2002).
3.2.
THE OPERA
3.2.1. General Background
In what follows, an overview will be given of adaptation in general and the suitability of
James’s novel for adaptation. All information for this section was taken from Halliwell (2005),
Desblache (2008) and Orr (2009).
Faithful adaptations of a work into another medium are not self-evident. To a certain extent,
any adaptation results in some loss of characteristics in comparison with the source. In the
15
new creation, other elements might be focussed on than was originally the case. Certain
material, such as dialogues, characters or even entire scenes can be added to the plot, or
existing material can likewise be left out. In the case of The Turn of the Screw, the adaptor is
also confronted with the issue of the ambiguity of the story and how this ambiguity can be
maintained. Piper (1979, p. 11), the librettist with whom Benjamin Britten worked together
for the opera version of The Turn of the Screw, claims that they did not intend “to interpret the
work, only to recreate it for a different medium” (as cited in Halliwell, 2005, p. 123).
However, to a certain extent the final product of an adaptation will always entail some degree
of interpretation of the source it is based on.
In his book, Halliwell (2005) outlines different aspects of the opera and the suitability of the
novel, with special focus on Henry James, as a source for the libretto. During the nineteenth
century the novel was used increasingly as a basis for opera librettos and this trend continued
throughout the next century. The Turn of the Screw has certain melodramatic features and
inherent dramatic qualities which appealed to opera adapters when they were looking for a
suitable source. The fact that the novel already comprises dialogue and a scenic structure,
makes it easier for the librettist to create opera scenes around the existing dramatic moments.
Desblache (2008) lists four additional possible reasons as to why James’s work was chosen as
a source for different operas. Firstly, she mentions the genre and restricted length of James’s
stories. Secondly she highlights their cosmopolitan aspect and the presence of intertextual
elements. Thirdly, she refers to “the sense of temporal and spatial displacement inherent in his
fiction” (p. 118), and finally, she also mentions the inherent ambiguity of James’s work and
his use of silence.
3.2.2. Adaptation
This section discusses how Henry James’s novel was adapted into Britten’s opera, based on
the work of Halliwell (2005) and Desblache (2008).
Desblache (2008, pp. 110-111) provides the following summary table of how the structure of
the tale was transferred into the opera libretto by Myfanwy Piper:
16
Henry James – The Turn of the Screw (24
Chapters)
Prologue Two narrators
Chapter 1 From there on Governess present
in the tale
Chapter 1
Myfanwy Piper Act I, 8 scenes – Act II, 8
scenes
Prologue One narrator
Act 1 scene 1 “The journey”: The governess
Act 1 scene 2 “The Welcome”: The
governess
Chapter2; Chapter 3
Act 1 scene 3 “The Letter”: The governess,
Mrs Grose, Flora, Miles
Chapter 3; Chapter 4
Act 1 scene 4 “The Tower”: The governess,
Quint
Chapter 5; Chapter 6
Act 1 scene 5 “The Window”: The
governess, Mrs Grose, Flora, Miles
Chapter 9
Act 1 scene 6 “The Lesson”: The governess,
Flora, Miles
Chapter 6 (Miss Jessel only named in chapter Act 1 scene 7 “The Lake”: The governess,
7); Chapter 8
Flora, Miles, Miss Jessel
No equivalent in the tale where ghosts do not Act 1 scene 8 “At night”: Quint, Miles, Miss
speak
Jessel, Flora, the governess, Mrs Grose
No equivalent in the tale
Act 2 scene 1 “Colloquy and Solloquy (sic)”:
Miss Jessel, Quint
Chapter 14
Act 2 scene 2 “The Bells”: Flora, Miles, The
governess, Mrs Grose
Partly Chapter 16
Act 2 scene 3 “Miss Jessel”: Miss Jessel, The
governess
Chapter 17
Act 2 scene 4 “The Bedroom”: Miles, The
governess, Quint
No equivalent in the tale
Act 2 scene 5 “Quint”: Quint
Chapter 18
Act 2 scene 6 “The Piano”: The governess,
Mrs Grose, Flora, Miles
Chapter 19, Chapter 20
Act 2 scene 7 “Flora”: Flora, Mrs Grose, the
governess
Chapters 20, 22, 23, 24
Act 2 scene 8 “Miles”: The governess, Miles,
Quint
A few remarks have to be made in connection with this table. The eighth scene of act 1 might
not have a corresponding equivalent in the tale, it is, however, based on the novel. The events
and discussion in Chapter 10 and 11 are indirectly used for this scene, which reflects the
imagination of the governess. Moreover, even though the fifth scene of act two is not
described in the story, it is linked to the final confrontation when Miles admits to have stolen
the letter. In addition to the ghosts, the first act of scene 1, Colloquy and Soliloquy, also stages
the governess at the end, inferring that the apparitions still might be projections of her mind.
And lastly, on the basis of the novel, the eighth scene of act two is not based on Chapter 20,
but Chapter 21, in addition to the Chapters mentioned in the table.
17
The opera consists of a prologue and two acts, which in turn comprise eight scenes which are
linked by means of musical variations. Halliwell (2005) states that “The operatic version of
TTOTS follows James’s tale very closely in its depiction of individual incident and overall
situation” (p. 157), and in connection with the transfer of the ambiguity of the original story,
he notes that either interpretation, the apparitionist and non-apparitionist view, can be
supported by the elements included in the opera, and he does not exclude the third possibility,
of not having to decide between the two interpretations, either.
A thorough analysis of Britten’s opera The Turn of the Screw, involving a detailed
comparison of each scene with the novel, can be found in Halliwell (2005, pp. 117-159).
Since the adaptors put a lot of effort in retaining the basic structure and story, this part of the
dissertation will focus on the most significant changes that Britten and Piper introduced and
will discuss possible interpretations that are given to the opera.
James introduces three different narrators in his novel: an anonymous narrator and Douglas –
who occur in the frame story – and the governess, the narrator of the main story. In the opera,
whereas the spectators are addressed directly by the singer who portrays Douglas, the
anonymous narrator is not staged, but might be considered to have been replaced by the
orchestra, which relies on music instead of words for the narrative act. Between the end of the
sung prologue and the beginning of the first scene of act one, the transfer of the real world,
the frame narrative, into the world of the governess is effected by a change in the music. A
clear difference between the tale and the opera lies in the presence of the governess, who is
always present as narrator of the story in the novel. In the opera, however, she does not
constantly appear. This, at first sight, might seem to support the apparitionist view, because
the supernatural activities happen independent of the governess’s presence on stage, however,
the non-apparitionist possibility cannot be ruled out completely. As indicated by Halliwell
(2005) “The most significant alteration is (…) the expanded treatment of the ghosts” (p. 158).
In the operatic version, the ghosts are given a voice and physical presence, and, unlike in the
novel, there is no doubt about the identity of the ghost of Miss Jessel. The librettist and
composer, however, did try very hard to keep every option in connection with the existence of
the ghosts open, and ultimately, the approach of the production team is decisive for the
particular interpretation which is given to the opera.
Other relevant differences in comparison with the novel are the decision to introduce Miles
and Flora together before the arrival of the letter, the added presence of Mrs Grose and Flora
while Miles is playing the piano, and the absence of Miles’s confusion in the end about who
18
the governess is referring to – Miles does not make any allusion to Miss Jessel. Britten and
Piper also included new text material with no literary source in the novel. They added, for
example, two existing nursery songs, a Latin rhyme and song, and used the sentence The
ceremony of innocence is drowned from Yeats’ (1979, p. 210-211) poem The Second Coming
to underline the important theme of the corruption of innocence. Naturally, the texts for the
ghosts are also new. There are, of course, other alterations which the composer and librettist
made when constructing the opera, but these will not be discussed in this dissertation.
3.2.3. Interpretation
Like the novel, also the opera elicited different interpretations. In what follows, an overview
will be given from these interpretations, on the basis of the work that Simonian (2002),
Clippinger (2002) and Halliwell (2005) have written on this topic. In connection with the
Latin words that are sung in the opera, Stray (2003) and Cunningham (2002) were also
consulted.
A significant aspect of Britten’s opera in relation to the ambiguity is that music distinctly
influences the meaning that is given to the words that are sung throughout the opera, and
therefore contributes to the perceived ambiguity. It has already been mentioned above that
Halliwell (2005) does not necessarily rule out the possibility of either reading, that the ghosts
can still be seen as either real or as mere projections of the governess’s mind, despite the fact
that the ghosts are physically present and not only inferred to, and despite the restricted
presence of the governess on stage. Simonian (2002) coincides with this view and supports a
reading in which both possibilities can be true at the same time, whereas Clippinger (2002) is
inclined to consider the ghosts as real in the light of his homoerotic interpretation of the opera.
Simonian (2002) argues that the ambiguity of the opera is supported by the music which
sometimes reinforces the innocence of the governess, and on other occasions seems to
implicate that she is guilty. She distinguishes three scenes where it is impossible to decide
between either interpretation, namely The Lesson, Flora and Miles. Miles’s Malo song, which
is sung during the lesson Latin, is filled with ambiguity, and according to Halliwell (2005),
19
the different meanings that can be attributed to malo are a reflection of Miles’s situation.
These possible meanings are explained in Stray (2003):
Malo: I would rather be
Malo: in an apple-tree
Malo: than a naughty boy
Malo: in adversity.
mâlo (v) I prefer
mâlum (n) apple tree
malus (adj) bad
(ditto) (p. 3)
The words might just mean what they say, that Miles wants to climb and sit in an apple tree,
but there is also a possibility to link the apple tree and the fall in Genesis, which would then
imply Miles’s bad intentions. However, the next lines seem to contradict this and indicate that
there might be more good than evil in him. The question still remains who taught him the
song and therefore would be the possible source of evil knowledge. This could be Miles
himself or Peter Quint, but an alternative interpretation would be that the governess, by
constantly urging Miles to answer, indirectly causes him to sing the song. During the scene,
Quint is not present physically nor musically. However, Miles uses the key that is linked to
Quint’s character and this might imply that Miles has a certain knowledge of evil, the exact
nature of which, nevertheless, remains unspecified. Musically, the song also indicates that the
uncertainty around Miles’s guilt will never be resolved.
Simonian (2002) also refers to the Flora scene to support her interpretation. When the
governess asks Flora where Miss Jessel is, she immediately sees the former governess. Either
the apparition is real or she only sees what she expects to see. Flora responds in an extreme
way – both verbally and musically – to the governess’s question, and this might imply that she
does know something and tries to hide it. Flora’s vehement reaction, however, might also be
caused by the governess’s continual questioning. Simonian further underlines that it is strange
that Flora would want to be taken away, if she did ran away to meet Miss Jessel, and that
Flora might be addressing Miss Jessel instead of Mrs Grose. This is, however, contradicted by
the accompanying music, which does not suggest any true wickedness. Flora’s musical
characteristics, moreover, do not coincide with those of Miss Jessel and this might contradict
the interpretation of Flora being under the influence of Miss Jessel’s ghost.
The third scene on which Simonian (2002) focuses, is the final scene, Miles. In this case as
well, the music is an influential factor that supports uncertainty. The vocal lines of the
governess and Quint are similar, which might indicate that “the governess (…) has become
just like Quint, at least in her desire to possess Miles” (Simonian, 2002, p. 47). There is no
20
suggestion that Miles sees Quint during the entire last confrontation; neither can it be
concluded definitively that Quint is evil. His words can be interpreted in different ways: as a
desire to control Miles or as a warning against the governess. Simonian (2002) suggests that
“what the governess perceives to be Quint could be the part of Miles’ consciousness that is
trying desperately to resist being possessed by the governess” (p. 48). After his last words
“Peter Quint, you devil!” (Piper, 1955, p. 311), which may refer either to Quint or the
governess, Miles dies and the governess’s culpability is left open. This is reinforced by her
last question “What have we done between us?” (ibid., p. 317) and the partial repetition of
Miles’s Malo song. The musical ending of the opera again suggests that the issues of
innocence and guilt which are dealt with in the opera cannot be resolved.
As has already been noted, Clippinger (2002) prefers the apparitionist view. According to him,
the uncertainty about the existence of the ghosts is in the opera replaced by the issue of the
exact nature of the relation that exists between the ghosts of Quint and Miss Jessel on the one
hand and Miles and Flora on the other hand. He claims that
By presencing the ghosts, Britten’s adaptation foregrounds the issue of homosexuality
latent in James’s text and posits a new perspective of the duel over Miles – namely,
the cultural conflict between heterosexuality and homosexuality as represented by the
figures of Peter Quint and the Governess (…) (Clippinger, 2002, p. 138).
Musically, Quint is portrayed quite positively during the opera, and this is also reinforced by
his voice type, since the tenor is linked to the romantic lover in opera. In the final scene of the
first act, there are no indications of evil in the words that Quint sings nor is there any
reference to it musically. In contrast, the music that surrounds the governess suggests a
negative connotation. According to Clippinger, Miles responds positively to Quint’s seduction,
and the words that Quint uses to describe himself do not express evilness but refer to his
homosexual nature. Clippinger rejects the possibility of pedophilia on the basis of Quint’s
conduct towards Miles and the latter’s positive acceptance, as well as the allusion to the word
penis in the Latin rhyme, and the Malo song in The Lesson scene, which stresses Miles’s
homosexual nature. Clippinger corroborates his theory, stating that, during The Bedroom
scene, Miles reacts to the governess’s questioning by blowing the candle out and thus calling
Quint to protect him. In an article in the Guardian, Cunningham (2002) discusses the hidden
meaning of the Latin passages used in the Britten opera The Turn of the Screw. According to
her, the Latin verse is full of phallic connotations. Stray (2003), however, refutes
21
Cunningham’s view and states that there is virtually no evidence for these connotations and
he strongly doubts whether Britten could have been aware of the extra meaning of the words.
In the first scene of act two, Clippinger again reads Quint positively and argues that the
positive elements outweigh Quint’s darkness. There is a significant difference with Miss
Jessel, whose utterances reveal her true evil motives and spitefulness. The music also supports
this contrast. Whereas Quint wants to free Miles from the restrictions of Victorian values,
which are represented by the governess, Miss Jessel’s final goal is the destruction of Flora. In
the next scene, the Governess is musically and ideationally associated with Miss Jessel and
this reinforces a possible negative interpretation of the governess.
Clippinger (2002) interprets the end of the opera, when Miles yields to the governess’s
questioning, as a “renunciation of homosexuality and his recuperation to heterosexuality by
running into her arms” (p. 147). According to him, the you in Miles’s final exclamation can be
connected with a form of homosexual panic towards his own nature.
In conclusion, it can be said that Britten and Myfanwy managed to transfer the novel fairly
well. The main structure of the novel was retained, which reinforces the importance of its
scenic structure, and even though they opted for staging the ghosts and having them sing, the
story’s ambiguity was nevertheless maintained, as is evidenced by the works that have been
written on the topic, which deal with ambiguity and mostly similar interpretations of the opera.
It should be reiterated that the final interpretation of each opera performance of The Turn of
the Screw ultimately depends on the production choices.
22
4.
ANALYSIS
4.1.
METHOD
The Dutch surtitles that are analysed in this dissertation were provided by myself, with the
guidance of Johan Wijnants, for the performance of The Turn of the Screw by students of the
conservatory in Ghent. Director Gidon Saks clearly opted for a homoerotic and apparitionist
interpretation of the opera. In his version, there is no doubt that the children see the ghosts.
The surtitles were written in several steps. First, a rudimentary translation of the English
libretto was made, from which a considerable amount of trivial and redundant information
was then deleted, such as many short exclamations and a large number of repetitions. After
this phase, the text was exported to PowerPoint and divided into captions. After each caption,
a blanc slide was introduced. On the basis of a version of the opera on YouTube, it was tested
whether the titles were adequate and which information should be displayed during the
ensemble parts in which different lines were sung by different characters simultaneously.
During the rehearsals, the text was further edited and some necessary changes were made in
connection with the ensembles. After the general rehearsal a few minor changes were
introduced. No definitive translation was made of the libretto and therefore the Dutch surtitles
will only be discussed in relation to the original English libretto. Consequently, the analysis
will deal with surtitling strategies and not translation strategies.
The first part of the analysis departs from the approach which Griesel (2007) applied for her
research on surtitling strategies in the theatre. She distinguishes four reduction strategy types,
namely “Tilgungen” (omission), “Komprimierungen” (compression), “mediale” and
“graphische Kürzungen” (p. 176). This dissertation, however, treats the two latter strategies as
subtypes of the former two – mediale Kürzungen as omission and graphische Kürzungen as
compression. The two strategies, henceforth referred to as omission and compression, are
further divided into a list of non-exhaustive subcategories by Griesel. This dissertation,
however, will not discuss these categories which refer to the form (whole passages, sentences,
clauses, words…) in detail, but will focus on the reasons for which the strategies were applied.
The second part of the analysis will discuss the interventions that were made to facilitate the
comprehension of the surtitles by the audience, on the basis of the choices that were made for
the Dutch surtitles to The Turn of The screw.
23
For each reduction strategy, several examples from the Dutch surtitles will be given, and the
reason for the omission or compression will be discussed. The same approach will be used to
discuss the interventions that were made to facilitate the reception of the surtitles. The
examples are presented in tables of two columns. The first column contains the sentence(s)
from the original libretto, and the second one gives the corresponding Dutch surtitle(s). Under
each table a page number can be found which refers to the page number in the appendix.
4.2.
REDUCTION
This section discusses the different strategies that were used to achieve the reduction of the
text. It will also look at the reduction percentage per scene respectively, to find out whether
certain parts of the opera are more likely to be reduced than other ones. In comparison with
the original English libretto, the Dutch surtitles to the opera are approximately 24% shorter.
For the calculation, the complete text per singer was taken into account. This also included the
places where two or more characters sang the same or a very similar text simultaneously. In
those cases, one title could be displayed for all singers. Applied to this opera, this strategy
accounted for more than one third of the total reduction.
The following graph shows how the reduction was proportionally spread over the different
scenes in the opera:
total reduction spread over scenes
18,00%
16,00%
14,00%
12,00%
10,00%
8,00%
6,00%
4,00%
5
6
7
8
II.
II.
II.
II.
N
3
II.
IO
2
II.
4
1
II.
I.8
I.7
I.6
I.5
I.4
I.3
I.2
I.1
II.
IA
T
VA
R
PR
O
LO
G
UE
2,00%
0,00%
24
The scenes with the highest reduction level, are scene 2, 3 and 8 of act 1 and scene 2 and 7 of
act 2: The Welcome (13,47%), The Letter (12,45%), At ight (12,54%), The Bells (15,93%)
and Flora (10,35%). The highest percentages correspond with scenes which involve a
considerable overlap between the vocalists. Most of the lower percentages coincide with a
monologue: the prologue, scene 1 and 4 of act 1, and scene 5 of act 2. The fourth scene of act
two, The Bedroom, deals with a conversation between the governess and Miles, with Quint
singing three short sentences in between offstage. The tempo of the music accompanying the
scene is slow, and therefore, it was possible to display the whole conversation. In addition, the
scene only comprises a negligible number of word repetitions that could be omitted.
It is also interesting to look at the reduction amount within each scene. The following table
presents an overview of this. The same five scenes as in the first table again have a higher
percentage, but there are two parts of the opera which stand out in this graph, namely
VARIATION XII and scene 5 of act 2, which are both monologues. However, this result
should be put into perspective. In the English libretto, Variation XII contains 81 words and
the fifth scene of act two only 14. Both parts comprise a considerable number of repetition of
complete sentences, which could be omitted, and it was possible to reduce the text passages to
28 and 2 words in Dutch respectively, without any loss of meaning.
reduction per scene
90,00%
80,00%
70,00%
60,00%
50,00%
40,00%
30,00%
20,00%
10,00%
II.
8
II.
7
II.
6
II.
5
II.
3
II.
2
II.
1
I.8
I.7
I.6
I.5
I.4
I.3
I.2
I.1
II.
4
IA
TI
O
N
R
VA
PR
O
LO
G
U
E
0,00%
In what follows, the strategies omission (4.2.1.) and compression (4.2.2.) will be discussed.
Omission was used significantly more for composing the surtitles than compression, which
25
only accounted for approximately 3-4% of the total reduction. The potential reduction that
was possible by omitting elements of the English libretto was close to 30%, however, this
number was, amongst other things, reduced by characteristics and restrictions of the Dutch
language, as well as explanations of certain references which were added to the text.
4.2.1. Omission
This term indicates that an existing element in the source text, the English libretto, is
completely left out in the target text, the Dutch surtitles. This can be for reasons of
redundancy (4.2.1.1.), contradiction (4.2.1.2.) and overlap (4.2.1.3.).
4.2.1.1. Redundancy
One of the forms of redundancy that occurs a considerable number of times in this opera is the
use of repetition. This includes repetitions of words and phrases within a sentence, but also
the repetition of clauses and whole sentences. Sometimes one singer repeats (part of) an
utterance made by another character on stage, as is common in a real conversation. This is
also treated as a form of repetition.
GOVERNESS
Miles, did you steal my letter? did you steal my Miles, heb je mijn brief gestolen ?
letter?
QUINT
Miles! You’re mine! Beware of her!
GOVERNESS
Did you? Did you?
Miles, je bent van mij, pas op voor haar !
– Was jij het ?
p.35
GOVERNESS
Only say the name, only say the name Zeg enkel de naam en hij gaat weg, voor altijd.
and he will go for ever, for ever, ever.
– Hij leidt, hij kijkt, hij wacht.
QUINT
He leads, he watches, he waits, he waits, waits,
he waits, waits, he waits, he waits!
p.36
26
FLORA
Small? It's huge!
It's a great wide sea!
Klein ? Het is immens !
– Het is een enorm uitgestrekte zee.
GOVERNESS
A sea – Then you must name it!
Come Flora, what seas do you know?
Dan moet je haar een naam geven.
– Vertel eens Flora, welke zeeën ken je ?
p.13
However, omission of repetition was not always applied in the surtitles, for example when
Quint and Miss Jessel each sing The ceremony of innocence is drowned separately and later
repeat it together, it was decided to surtitle this nevertheless, because loss of innocence is one
of the main themes in the opera.
And in that hour "The ceremony of innocence is Dan “wordt de ceremonie
drowned."
van de onschuld verdronken”.
Miss JESSEL
I too must have a soul to share my woe.
Ook ik heb een bevriende ziel nodig
om mijn ellende mee te delen.
Despised, betrayed, unwanted,
Veracht, verraden, ongewenst...
she must go
Forever to my joyless spirit bound.
Zo moet ze altijd verbonden blijven
aan mijn vreugdeloze geest.
"The ceremony of innocence is drowned."
“De ceremonie van de onschuld
wordt verdronken.”
QUINT, Miss JESSEL
Day by day the bars we break,
Break the love that laps them round,
Cheat the careful watching eyes,
QUINT
"The ceremony of innocence is drowned, The
ceremony of innocence is drowned, drowned, of
innocence, The ceremony of innocence is
drowned.”
MISS JESSEL
"The ceremony of innocence is drowned, is
drowned, The ceremony is drowned, of
innocence, The ceremony of innocence is
drowned.”
Dag na dag breken we de tralies,
doorbreken we de liefde die hen omringt…
We misleiden de ogen
die nauwlettend toekijken.
“De ceremonie van de onschuld
wordt verdronken.”
p.20-21
27
As has already been mentioned above, when two or more performers sing the same or similar
text simultaneously, only one caption for both singers has to be shown. This can also be seen
as a form of redundancy.
O what a clever boy!
Wat een knappe jongen !
I never knew a little boy so good.
Ik heb nooit een kleine jongen gekend
die zo goed was.
p.29-30
In this case, Mrs. Grose and the governess were singing these lines together. It was
unnecessary to show the surtitles per person. Moreover, if it was displayed that way, it would
also distract the audience’s attention from the performance longer.
Names, titles and other forms of addresses are also often considered redundant, and are
usually left out after the first introduction of the characters. In the following examples the
words Mrs. Grose and Miss were omitted in the surtitles:
GOVERNESS
Mrs. Grose, what has happened here,
in this house?
Wat is hier gebeurd in dit huis ?
p.9
Mrs. GROSE
Why! Whatever's going on?
Miss Flora out of bed!
Waarom ? Wat is er dan toch aan de hand ?
Waarom ligt Flora niet in haar bed ?
p.19
This form of omission, however, was not used consistently, and on a number of occasions
names and addresses were added to the surtitles as a specification and help for the audience
(see 4.3.2.).
Short exclamations and interjections are also considered redundant and can be omitted
without any loss of meaning:
Ha! 'Tis he!
Hij is het !
p.7
FLORA
Is the Dead Sea.
GOVERNESS
Oh!
Dit is de Dode Zee.
p.14
28
In the following case, the translation of Here! was left out, because the audience could clearly
see the action performed on stage. In this caption, the address was also omitted.
Miss! Miss!
a letter for you.
Een brief voor u.
Here!
p.5
Another case of redundancy can be observed in the example below:
lalalalalala
lalalalalala
p.8
These words do not comprise any meaning, and, moreover, the words were clearly audible
during the performance, and they are the same in Dutch. Therefore, it was decided to leave
this part untitled.
4.2.1.2. Contradiction
On two occasions, omission was applied to avoid a conflict between the text and the stage.
The first case involved the description of Quint, which did not coincide with the appearance
of the actual singer, who had black hair and was of average length. The director gave
instructions to leave out the components small eyes and tall, and introduced a small change in
the sung text. The adjective red was replaced by dark, however, to avoid contrast with the
original libretto, the problem was circumvented by introducing a deliberate vagueness that did
not compromise the faithfulness of the text. In the final version of the surtitles, the words red,
small eyes and tall were omitted so that the description fitted the production.
GOVERNESS
His hair was red, close-curling,
a long, pale face, small eyes.
Zijn haar was krullend.
Hij had een lang, bleek gezicht.
His look was sharp, fixed and strange.
Zijn blik was scherp, star en vreemd.
29
He was tall, clean-shaven, yes, even
handsome,
Hij was gladgeschoren, ja, zelfs knap...
p.9
The second occasion of discrepancy was related to the props that were used on stage. In the
part where Quint encourages Miles to take the letter, originally the letter was lying on a desk.
In this production of the opera, however, the desk was replaced by the floor in the lyrics, and
again it was decided not to translate this adaptation, and omit the element in the surtitles. No
information was lost, because the audience could see the letter lying on the floor.
It is there on the desk
there on the desk, there, there.
De brief ligt daar.
p.29
4.2.1.3. Overlap
In the case of overlap of different voices in ensembles, it is not always possible to show every
line that is sung, so decisions have to be made as to which parts will be transferred into the
surtitles. The amount of text that can be conveyed into the surtitles, depends on a number of
things, such as the music tempo, the total number of different storylines, the amount of text
that each character has to sing, the rhythm of the words, and the possible redundancy of the
content.
GOVERNESS
Ah! She is there! Look, she is there!
Look, you little unhappy thing!
Look, Mrs. Grose! She is there!
Miss JESSEL
Flora, do not fail me!
Mrs. GROSE
Indeed, Miss, there's nothing there.
Kijk dan, daar is ze !
– Flora, stel me niet teleur.
Inderdaad, daar is niets te zien.
GOVERNESS
Only look, dearest woman,
don't you see, now, now!
Miss JESSEL
Nothing shall they know.
Mrs. GROSE
Ze mogen niets weten
30
She isn't there, little lady, nobody is there.
GOVERNESS
But look!
Ze is daar niet, Floraatje, daar is niemand.
– Maar kijk dan toch !
FLORA
I can't see anybody, can't see anything,
nobody, nothing, nobody, nothing;
I don't know what you mean.
Ik kan niemand zien, ik kan niets zien.
Niemand. Niets. Ik weet niet wat u bedoelt.
Mrs. GROSE
There's nobody there.
Miss JESSEL
We know all things, they know nothing.
Er is daar niemand.
– Wij weten alles, zij niets.
Don't betray me! Silence! Silence!
FLORA
You're cruel, horrible, hateful, nasty.
Why did you come here? Why did you come
here?
Mrs. GROSE
She isn't there. Why, poor Miss Jessel's dead and
buried, we know that, love. It's all a mistake.
Waarom bent u naar hier gekomen ?
– Verraad me niet, en zwijg !
Ze is daar niet, de arme juffrouw Jessel.
Ze is dood en begraven, we weten het, liefje.
Miss JESSEL
Silence! Silence!
FLORA
O I don't know what you mean!
Take me away! Take me away!
I don't like her! I don’t like her! I hate her!
Haal me hier weg !
Ik moet haar niet, ik haat haar !
GOVERNESS
Me!
Mrs. GROSE
Yes, it's all a mistake, it’s all a mistake and
we'll get home as fast as we can.
There, there, dearie, There, there. We'll get
home as fast as we can. There, there. There,
there. There, there.
GOVERNESS
Yes! Go! Go! Go!
Miss JESSEL.
Ah! Flora! Flora! Flora! Flora!
do not fail me, do not fail me, Flora! Flora!
FLORA
I can't see anybody, can't see anything,
nobody, nothing, nobody, nothing,
I don't know what she means.
Het is allemaal een vergissing. We zullen snel
naar huis gaan.
31
Cruel, horrible, hateful, nasty.
We don't want you!
We don't want you!
Take me away! Take me away from her!
Hateful, cruel, nasty, horrible…
U bent wreed, verschrikkelijk, hatelijk, gemeen.
We willen u hier niet, haal me hier weg !
p.31-33
As can be seen in the example above, a considerable part of the libretto was left untitled.
However, this passage contains a lot of repetition or sentences with a similar content, and
sometimes sentences that were not translated, when they were sung for the first time, e.g. It’s
all a mistake and You’re cruel, horrible, hateful, nasty were included in later titles. Overall,
the essential meaning was transferred, and only a few redundant utterances, such as There,
there, dearie… were completely omitted.
4.2.2. Compression
This term refers to a strategy in which parts of the original text are condensed in the target
text. This often involves a change in the syntactic structure of a sentence. Reasons to apply
this strategy can be overlap (4.2.2.1.) and style (4.2.2.2.).
4.2.2.1. Overlap
When different performers are singing simultaneously, it is the surtitler’s job to try to transfer
the meaning of the most important lines as good as possible. To this end, whole sentences and
phrases can be condensed. The following example shows that two sentences can be
paraphrased into one sentence without loss of meaning:
GOVERNESS
How charming, how charming they are,
Mrs. GROSE
I'm happy, so happy that you've come, Miss.
Miss Flora and Master Miles are happy,
so happy that you're here, too.
Hoe lieftallig zijn ze…
– Wat zijn we blij dat u er bent, juffrouw.
p.4
32
In this case, both the governess (I) and the children (Miss Flora and Master Miles) were
referred to with one word, we, the rest of the two sentences are very similar, so they could
easily be restructured into one sentence. In the next sentence, a noun phrase that consisted of
three words in the source text, became one word in the target surtitles, by making use of a
hypernym. Again, no essential loss of meaning can be observed.
GOVERNESS
The house and park are so splendid,
Het landgoed is prachtig…
p.4
4.2.2.2. Style
Generally, surtitles have to be clear and concise. The surtitler, therefore, will try to render the
sentences more efficiently in parts of the text which would otherwise contain elaborate use of
language.
GOVERNESS
Only this much I know: things have been done
here that are not good, and have left a taste
behind them.
Ik weet alleen dat hier slechte dingen gebeurd
zijn, die een wrange nasmaak hebben
achtergelaten.
p.11
In the example above, a change in the sentence structure was introduced. The second and third
of the coordinated main clauses were replaced by a that-clause and a relative clause
respectively, and the first part of the sentence was reformulated and condensed to achieve this
change. In the sentence below, the that-clause was replaced by a past participle by use of a
synonym of the description:
No! I've said I will do it,
and for him I will.
Nee, ik heb toegezegd,
en voor hem zal ik doorzetten.
p.2
Compression may also involve minor changes, such as a change of tense:
33
Untried, innocent, she had gone first to
see their guardian in London;
Onervaren, onschuldig,
bezocht ze eerst hun oom in Londen.
p.1
Or the use of a noun phrase with an adjective instead of a prepositional phrase. This may,
however, also be seen as a translation strategy:
Tomorrow her waxen lids may close
On the plains of Muscovy.
Morgen zullen haar wassen oogleden zich sluiten
op de Russische vlakten.
p.14
4.3.
RECEPTION AID
4.3.1. Style
To guide the audience fluently through a performance, a number of techniques can be used,
including the use of a consistent layout and general punctuation conventions. Calibri was
used as the font for The Turn of the Screw and for a clear contrast, the letters were projected
in white on a black background. Preferably, a long sentence is divided in two lines instead of
one, and the break should come at a grammatically logical point. In the next sentence, for
example, this logical point comes just before the start of the subclauses beginning with how
and you (that-clause):
GOVERNESS
Miles, if you knew how
I want to help you,
how I want you to help me save you!
Miles, als je eens wist
hoe graag ik je wil helpen…
…hoe graag ik wil
dat jij mij helpt om jou te redden.
p.28
The latter example also demonstrates how a sentence break across two captions is indicated,
namely with three dots at the end of the first caption and three at the beginning of the next
caption. This makes it clear to the audience that the sentence will be continued in the next
caption. The three dots, however, might also indicate an unfinished thought, or a hesitation, as
can be seen in the following examples:
34
This then would be her task.
But there was one condition:
Zij zou voor de kinderen zorgen,
maar er was één voorwaarde...
he was so much engaged
Hij was zo drukbezet.
– affairs, travel, friends, visits, always something,
Zaken, reizen, vrienden, bezoekjes, altijd iets...
no time at all for the poor little things
Er was helemaal geen tijd over
voor die arme schaapjes.
p.1
Sir, dear Sir, my dear Sir,
Heer... Geachte Heer...
Mijn Heer...
I have not forgotten your charge of silence, of
silence, but there are things that you must know,
Ik ben uw vraag tot stilzwijgen niet vergeten,
maar er zijn dingen die u moet weten…
and I must see you, must see and tell you, at
once. Forgive me, Forgive me. That is all.
Ik moet u zien en het u onmiddellijk vertellen.
Vergeef me. Dat is alles.
p.26-27
To enhance the legibility of the surtitles, a space was introduced between the text and most
punctuation marks, with the exception of all points, commas and the three dots. In the
discussed opera, it was used before question marks, exclamation marks, colons, and before
and after parentheses.
How do you curtsey?
Hoe maak je een reverence ?
Bow!
Vooruit, buig !
p.3
Will she be this, will she be that,
a dozen, dozen times I do declare.
Zou ze dit, zou ze dat...
Ik zeg het jullie nog één keer :
p.3
Parentheses are used in surtitles to indicate an aside, as in the following case, where Mrs
Grose sings her private thoughts in the presence of the governess:
A good young lady, Ill be bound,
( Een fijne jongedame, ik ben er zeker van )
and a pretty, a pretty one too.
( En nog mooi ook )
Now all will be well,
we were far too long alone!
( Nu komt alles goed )
( We waren veel te lang alleen )
p.5
35
It is advisable not to exaggerate with the presence of exclamation marks, and if they are not
needed, to omit or avoid them in the surtitles. In the following case, for example, the
exclamation marks were replaced by points, because the governess was whispering the
sentences on stage.
I've done it! I've written it!
It's ready for the post.
Ik heb het gedaan. Ik heb hem geschreven.
De brief is klaar om te posten.
p.29
On a number of occasions, a reduction in the number of exclamation marks was achieved by
connecting sentences:
MILES
Hullo! Where are you, you two?
GOVERNESS
There he is! Go to him! Go to him!
Hallo, waar zijn jullie twee ?
– Daar is hij, ga naar hem !
p.15
GOVERNESS
Begone! Begone! Begone!
You horrible, terrible woman!
Weg met jou,
verschrikkelijke, vreselijke vrouw !
p.26
Italics can be used for different reasons. In this opera, they were used to refer to the contents
of a letter, the letter which the governess receives from Miles’s school and the one she writes
herself to his uncle:
GOVERNESS
What can it mean –
never go back?
Wat betekent dit ?
ooit meer terugkeren.
p.5
Sir, dear Sir, my dear Sir,
Heer... Geachte Heer...
Mijn Heer...
I have not forgotten your charge of silence, of
silence, but there are things that you must know,
Ik ben uw vraag tot stilzwijgen niet vergeten,
maar er zijn dingen die u moet weten…
and I must see you, must see and tell you, at
once. Forgive me, Forgive me. That is all.
Ik moet u zien en het u onmiddellijk vertellen.
Vergeef me. Dat is alles.
p.26-27
36
The italics were used to indicate that the characters were singing a song within the operatic
world as well, for example, when Miles and Flora sing the Lavender’s blue song on the
background and the governess and Mrs Grose are looking at them while they are playing:
MILES, FLORA
Lavender's blue, diddle, diddle,
Lavender's green,
When I am King, diddle, diddle,
You shall be Queen.
GOVERNESS, Mrs. GROSE
See how sweetly he plays,
Lavendel is blauw, lavendel is groen
– Kijk hoe lief hij met zijn zus speelt.
p.6
When more than one character is singing a different line at the same time, or when these
utterances follow very quickly after another, dashes are used to indicate that the sentences are
sung by different singers. To make it easier for the audience to follow, it should be tried to be
consistent in putting the lines of one singer on the first line and of another one on the second
line.
GOVERNESS
Who? Who? Who made you take the letter?
Who? Who?
QUINT
On the paths, in the woods, remember Quint!
GOVERNESS
Who do you wait for, watch for?
QUINT
At the window, on the tower, when the candle is
out, remember Quint!
GOVERNESS
Only say the name, only say the name
and he will go for ever, for ever, ever.
QUINT
He leads, he watches, he waits, he waits, waits,
he waits, waits, he waits, he waits!
Wie droeg je op de brief te nemen ?
– Aan de oevers, bij de muren, denk aan Quint.
Op wie wacht je, naar wie kijk je uit ?
– Bij het raam, op de toren, wanneer de kaars uit
is...
Zeg enkel de naam en hij gaat weg, voor altijd.
– Hij leidt, hij kijkt, hij wacht.
p.36
As discussed in Chapter 2, it is also important that each caption forms a meaningful unit, as
far as possible. Therefore, a number of sentences were restructured in this opera. In the
following case, for example, one sentence was split into three sentences in the Dutch surtitles:
37
She was to do everything, be responsible
for everything, not to worry him at all,
Zij moest alles doen, was verantwoordelijk,
en mocht hem helemaal niet storen.
No, not to write,
but to be silent, and
do her best.
Ze mocht hem niet schrijven.
Ze moest zwijgen en haar best doen.
p.1
The examples that have been discussed under 4.2. can also be said to facilitate the reception
of the surtitles by the audience, because, as a consequence of the modifications, the spectators
are able to read the captions in a shorter period of time.
To reduce the reading effort, certain phonological peculiarities are also eliminated. This was
the case for the following sentence, where the word Mediterranean was projected without the
repetition of the syllables:
... Medi-me-di-ter-ra-ne-an!
De Middellandse...
p.13
As the singer who portrayed Flora was clearly audible at this point of the opera, the particular
effect was not lost.
Surtitles are generally seen as a comprehension aid and in order not to distract the attention of
the audience from the music and action on stage, it is often argued that the style of the text
should be kept simple and it should not be attempted to reflect the style of the original libretto.
However, on a few places in this opera, an effort was made to highlight certain aspects of the
libretto. This can be attempted at a musical low point, where the text becomes more like prose,
a lyrical passage with a lot of time to read, or an important sentence which is marked
stylistically. It is also possible to take the style into account at a musical high, so as to a more
businesslike or plain style does not detract from the compelling opera experience.
It was, for example, tried to reproduce the alliteration of the following passage in the Dutch
surtitles:
My first foolish fears
are all vanished now, are all banished now…
Mijn eerste absurde angsten
zijn nu allemaal verdwenen en verbannen.
Those fluttering fears
Die opflakkerende onrust
38
when I could not forget the letter -
toen ik maar bleef denken aan de brief...
p.7
The transfer of the paronomasia vanished – banished in the same example was less successful,
but this did not hinder the reception.
Even though rhyme is often deemed unnecessary in surtitles, and the singers are said to be
responsible for the style transfer, it was nevertheless decided to make an attempt to reflect the
rhyme of Tom, Tom, the Piper’s son. Otherwise, the visual text might have contrasted too
sharply with the sung words and could therefore have distracted the audience.
MILES, FLORA
Tom, Tom, the Piper's son
Stole a pig and away he run.
Tom, Tom, fluitistenzoon,
stal een pastei en weg was hij
Pig was eat and Tom was beat,
Tom ran howling down the street.
De pastei was op en Tom kreeg klop
Tom rende huilend door de straat.
p.8
4.3.2. Specification
On a number of occasions, it was also decided to specify certain data in the surtitles. First of
all, the word guardian was consistently translated as oom instead of voogd because both
nouns, guardian and uncle, are used in the opera to refer to the same person. The choice for
only one Dutch term for both nouns was made to avoid possible confusion.
I must not write to their guardian,
that is the hardest part of all…
Ik mag hun oom niet schrijven,
dat valt me het zwaarst.
p.2
Secondly, some cultural references were specified in the Dutch surtitles, by adding a short
explanation or by using a more general term:
How do you do, Miss.
Welcome to Bly!
Aangenaam, juffrouw.
Welkom op ons landhuis in Bly !
p.3
Boadicea on her chariot!
Ik ben de Keltische koningin Boudicca
39
op haar strijdwagen.
p.12
Gerda and Psyche seeking
their loves again,
De ijskoningin Gerda, en Psyche,
op zoek naar hun geliefden...
p.17
Mrs. GROSE
And Miss Flora playing at cat's cradle.
En zie juffrouw Flora,
bezig met haar touwspelletje.
p.30
It cannot be assumed that every member of the audience will know to what and whom the
references refer. These short interventions into the text are necessary to prevent the audience
from being distracted by a word they do not know. However, the limited caption space should
also always be taken into account when making these decisions. It will sometimes not be
possible to explain all cultural references in an opera. In the third example, it was decided to
explain the reference Gerda and not Psyche, since it was considered more likely that a
Flemish spectator would be able to relate Psyche to Amor, but would not be able to situate
Gerda.
Under 4.2.1.1. it has already been indicated that names and addresses are sometimes added to
the text. This specification strategy is used for coherence and to enhance the comprehension
of the libretto.
And then she went.
She couldn't stay – not then.
Toen ging juffrouw Jessel weg.
Ze kon niet langer blijven, dat ging niet meer.
p.11
GOVERNESS
Ah! My friend, you have forsaken me, at last Mevrouw Grose, mijn vriendin,
you have forsaken me.
uiteindelijk heeft u me in de steek gelaten !
p.33
The same reason can be given for the specification of the references in the following
sentences:
This then would be her task.
But there was one condition:
Zij zou voor de kinderen zorgen,
maar er was één voorwaarde...
p.1
'Twas not my place.
Het was niet mijn taak.
40
They were not in my charge.
Ik moest niet voor de kinderen zorgen.
p.10
In order to offer the audience clear and consistent surtitles, a surtitler sometimes has to make
interpretative choices. Even when the source text is ambiguous, it is often considered better to
make a deliberate choice and transfer it into the surtitles. Normally, this happens in
consultation with the director of the production. In the opera, as well as the novel, one
element that remains unspecified, is the particular reason for which Miles is expelled. The
letter vaguely mentions an injury, but no further details as to the nature of this injury are
given. For this production of the opera, it was decided to interpret this injury as physical
damage:
GOVERNESS
An injury to his friends.
Mrs. GROSE
Him an injury - I won't believe it!
Hij heeft een vriendje verwond.
– Dat kan ik niet geloven !
p.5
41
5.
CONCLUSION
This dissertation showed that, although The Turn of the Screw might not seem to be a suitable
source for adaptation at first sight, it does comprise certain attractive elements for operatic
adaptation, such as the scenic structure and melodramatic elements of the work. Britten and
Piper followed the structure of the novel fairly closely and it was proved that they managed to
transfer James’s ambiguity in an adequate way, because the opera has been interpreted in
similar ways as the novel on which it is based. It was also stated that this potential ambiguity
finally depends on the choices that are made on the production side of a performance, and that
in the case of the discussed surtitles and production, the director adopted an apparitionist,
homoerotical view, as proposed by Clippinger.
In the first, quantitative part of the analysis, it was shown that omission was the most used
strategy in the opera. It is very probable that this reduction form is also the most used strategy
in other operas, but further investigation is necessary to confirm this. On the basis of the data
provided on the division of the reduction, it could also be concluded that, at least in this opera,
scenes containing ensembles, especially scenes involving a significant overlap between the
different lines of the singing characters, were relatively reduced more than monologues. This
does not necessarily mean that the same results will be found in the case of other operas,
because, as indicated during this work, different factors, such as music tempo and text density,
can influence the reduction percentage in ensembles, and they can likewise also have an effect
on other parts of the opera. In addition to this, it was also established in Chapter 2 that each
surtitler has his own method to compose surtitles, and that there does not exist one generally
accepted surtitling strategy. In this light, other surtitlers might have created completely
different surtitles from the ones discussed in this dissertation, and this, consequently, would
have led to other results.
The second part of the analysis focused on a qualitative discussion of the surtitles, and the
reception side of the opera. On the basis of examples, different methods were demonstrated to
facilitate the reading of surtitles. These included generally accepted conventions on layout and
punctuation, but also other decisions that were specifically used for this opera. Again, a
considerable number of decisions were made, which might have differed from one surtitler to
another one.
42
When considering both parts of the analysis together, it can be concluded that a surtitler has to
take into account many aspects when composing surtitles: the source text, reception and
production. A surtitler, therefore, continuously has to try to find and keep the balance between
all these different elements.
43
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