Some have called it "the perfect opera libretto." Mrs. Myfanwy Piper provided Britten with an adaptation of the novella by Henry James; this wordy, ambiguous text is magically turned into a concise psychological thriller about a governess placed in charge of two orphaned children at the estate of their uncle. The uncle is unwilling to provide any parenting. He simply orders the governess not to bother him about anything having to do with the children. Isolated at the estate, the governess soon perceives that two malevolent ghosts (of the master's valet and of the former governess) are fighting her for the very souls of the children. In a final confrontation, the girl is taken away from harm by the old housekeeper, but the boy's final struggle to renounce the evil influence proves too much for him, and he dies. Were there really ghosts, or was the psychological struggle actually an outgrowth of the repressed sexuality of the governess? James' novella is ambiguous; Britten seems on the surface to cast the ghosts as real (his opera gives them voices and words to sing, which James did not do), but there is enough of a question that it can be staged either way. The dramatic and musical form is masterly. One theme, twisting its way around all notes of the scale, dominates the opera, whose 15 scenes and prologue each constitute a variation on the theme. Doubt creeps in slowly in Act One, as scenes of idyllic upper-class country life are subtly darkened by references to death until the ghosts finally appear and call to the children. Act Two presents a struggle between the ghosts and the governess, with the tension tightening each step of the way. Britten uses only 13 instruments and six voices in this opera, but he creates a breathtaking variety of sounds from these resources. Because of its small scale the work is not played in the larger opera houses very often, but it is accepted as a masterpiece of the growing genre of chamber opera.

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