The Turn of the Screw

ACT ONE

A narrator appears in front of the curtain and explains the events leading up to the first scene. The Governess, an “untried, innocent” woman who remains nameless throughout the opera, has been employed to the care of two young children who live in an East English country house called Bly. Their former governess having “gone,” they lived only with an old housekeeper. Their handsome and charming guardian, their only relative, employed the governess because he claimed to be too busy with travel and engagements to keep watch over them. He explained his conditions to the impressionable governess--she was to watch over the children, and tend to their every need, but she was not to write to him or disturb him in any way. Despite feeling some doubt, she agreed to the task.

The lights go up on the interior of a coach--the Governess is on her way to the house. She is fretting over all the doubts she feels: What will the children be like? Who will she confide in? Why can she not write