Turkeys may have replaced jack-o'lanterns in holiday displays across the city, but, SFCM has one last scare up its sleeve—and a prestigious guest along for the ride.

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Design by Chea Kang

GRAMMY-winning conductor Michael Christie is helming both the Nov. 20 and Nov. 21 performances of the Conservatory's production of Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw, taking audiences and students along for the otherworldly twists of Britten's musical adaptation of Henry James' classic gothic horror novella.

Christie is back on the West Coast after conducting SFCM Composition faculty Mason Bates' The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Klay at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He conducted the world premiere of the opera in November 2024, and in 2023, led the San Francisco Opera’s production of Bates' The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs. Having conducted (R)evolution's world premiere with the Santa Fe Opera, Christie then won a 2019 GRAMMY Award for the Pentatone Records release of that recording. (Pentatone is part of SFCM's family of music industry partners, which also includes talent agencies Opus 3 Artists and Askonas Holt.)

Christie remembers being immediately struck by Britten's work. "I studied it quite a bit because of its musical architecture," he says, highlighting "how Britten was able to harmonize this slowly evolving story and create this dramatic tension with quite sparse resources in terms of the number of players and keeping the drama very personal."

Because of these considerations, Christie says, "We're capable of doing things with the vocal color and instrumental colors that we can't when you have to shout over a 55-person orchestra. It's very exciting, because we can create a whispered effect in some places, and that's something you don't get to with, say, Rigoletto."

This subtlety is owed at least partially to the subject material: Because Turn is a ghost story, the performance needs to convey that characters are singing on literally different planes of existence. To help achieve this, Christie says, "we meter how quickly and where characters' voices and physical bodies are entering the performance space." He continues, "These characters are on literally different planes of existence, and everything from their vocal timbres to volume, from how quietly they're singing against one another to where they're singing from, reinforces that. This can be challenging, but I'm really excited by all the work that the students have done. I appreciate the go-gettedness of them: They really want to execute it well."

Projection technology in SFCM's Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall.

The Turn of the Screw will get some extra heft from the projection technology that outfits the Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall, the Conservatory's largest performance space. Heather Mathews, SFCM's Director of Opera and Musical Theatre and Chair of the Opera and Musical Theatre Program and Opera Studies, is keen to highlight how the lighting and imagery of the production will interact with the music. "This production combines the best of traditional ghost story tropes with an added punch from our digital hall effects," she explains.

Projections in SFCM's 2025 production of 'Riders to the Sea.'

Calling The Turn of the Screw "opera's best psychological thriller," Mathews continues, "I want the audience to wonder what is real and imagined. What is a dream, and what is actually happening to the children, and of course, what has happened in this house?"

Reserve your tickets to the Nov. 20 or Nov. 21 performance of The Turn of the Screw or learn more about studying Opera and Musical Theatre at SFCM. Support for SFCM's 2025-26 opera program is made possible by a grant from the Carol Franc Buck Foundation.