25 March-2 April 2006. Conducted by Bruno Bartoletti, directed by Luca Ronconi, with Gun-Brit Barkmin, Fleur Todd and Jacob Moriarty.

The Regio di Parma will host The Turn of the Screw by Benjamin Britten (25 March-2 April), a masterpiece of modern opera; a disturbing story of children and ghosts, of good and evil, of violated innocence and unsound maturity. It is an opera constructed with the absolute minimum (14 solo instruments and brief scenes), where the music and the words are in such perfect equilibrium that they seem one and the same. The production, which is about ten years old, is directed by Luca Ronconi, with scenery by Margherita Palli and costumes by Vera Marzot. At the time it was much appreciated for its cinematic presentation and above all for the ambiguity of the finale: one did not know if the ghosts existed, and really did torment the two children, Flora and Miles, or if they were only a figment of the diseased imagination of the governess. The opera will be conducted by Bruno Bartoletti, who specialises in modern music; the principal singers will be Gun-Brit Barkmin (the governess), Fleur Todd (Flora) and Jacob Moriarty (Miles). Paolo Di Nicola