Scaring up an alternative venue

Yes, the Castle, that hulking gray granite structure - complete with battlements and towers - that stretches along Columbus Avenue at the corner of Arlington Street, not far from Boston Common. Built as an armory in 1891, the cavernous Castle, registered as a National Historical Landmark, is today owned by the Park Plaza Hotel and usually hosts conventions and special events. But on Feb. 3, 5, and 6, the Castle will for the first time in its history become an opera house of sorts.

Esther Nelson, the energetic and enterprising general and artistic director of BLO, is eager to point out that the Castle is an “alternative venue. There is no traditional stage or proscenium.’’

“We are building our own seating for an audience of 500,’’ she said recently at the BLO offices. “There are no dressing rooms, and the musicians will be warming up in plain view. And there won’t be any scenery in the traditional sense - the space is the scenery.’’

Directed by Sam Helfrich, familiar to Boston audiences from his previous work for Opera Boston (“Mahagonny,’’ “Die Freischutz’’), this production of “The Turn of the Screw’’ also launches a new venture for BLO, Opera Annex. The initiative aims to offer a new way to experience opera, outside of a typical theater environment. In 2005, largely owing to financial pressures, BLO cut back the number of operas it was staging each season in its usual venue, the Shubert Theatre, from four to three. Opera Annex adds a fourth opera to the schedule, staged in another locale at about one-third the cost of mounting a show at the Shubert.

“We are the largest opera company in New England, and we should be doing at least four productions a year,’’ said Nelson. “We need to be representing all 400 years of opera history. Opera Annex gives us the ability to explore a wider range of repertoire and control our costs, but still on a high professional level. I also believe it will bring in a different, younger audience. The difficult financial situation has led us to think outside the box.’’ Ticket prices will also be significantly lower than for BLO’s Shubert shows. The most expensive tickets for Opera Annex productions sell for $85, compared to $195 at the Shubert.

As it happens, Britten’s 1954 chamber opera “The Turn of the Screw,’’ based on an 1898 novella of the same title by Henry James, was also born in difficult financial circumstances. In the aftermath of World War II, opera companies in England and Europe had to make do with smaller budgets. Already famous for such operas as “Peter Grimes’’ and “Billy Budd,’’ Britten responded by composing several works for smaller forces of singers and instrumentalists. “The Turn of the Screw’’ calls for six singers and a chamber ensemble.

James’s novella is a spooky tale of a young governess sent to a large English country estate to care for a boy and girl. Soon after she arrives, however, she begins to detect the presence of two ghostly spirits wandering the premises and exercising malignant influence over her charges. These are the former governess (Miss Jessel) and man-servant (Quint), now mysteriously deceased. Their presence (and implied sexual involvement with the children) becomes increasingly disturbing to the high-strung governess, who seeks emotional support from the longtime housekeeper, Mrs. Grose. The struggle between the governess and the spirits gradually rises to a fever pitch and culminates in a startling “turn of the screw.’’ Whether the ghosts are real, or only the production of the governess’s hyperactive psyche, is the question the novella poses, without providing a definite answer.

Myfanwy Piper adapted the novella into a libretto with a prologue and two acts. The musical language is highly accessible but complex, built around a series of variations on a 12-note theme. Veteran dramatic mezzo-soprano Joyce Castle, who takes the role of Mrs. Grose in the BLO production, admires the score. “Britten writes so well for the voice,’’ she said by phone. “He knew singers thoroughly and played the piano as an accompanist, so he knew exactly how to write for each voice type.’’

Currently in her 40th year of performing all over the globe (in 133 different roles, at last count), Castle made her Boston debut in 2007. Under Helfrich’s direction, she sang the role of brothel madam Leocadia Begbick in Kurt Weil’s gamy “Mahagonny.’’ In that updated production, set in what looked like post-Katrina New Orleans, “I made my debut entrance from a port-a-potty,’’ she said with a hearty Midwestern guffaw. “This time, I’ll be Castle in the Castle.’’

As Mrs. Grose in “The Turn of the Screw,’’ a role she has sung several times previously, Castle is at the center of the struggle between the governess (sung by Emily Pulley) and the nasty spirits of Quint and Miss Jessel. “She has been in the house the longest and knows all the secrets,’’ the singer said. “We don’t know whether she sees the ghosts the governess claims to see, but she is highly suggestible and believes in the possibility of the haunting.’’

Helfrich agrees that the character of Mrs. Grose is central to the drama. “In many ways, the story hinges on her narration,’’ he remarked recently during a break from rehearsals. “But she is not a reliable narrator. So we are left with inconsistencies and ambiguities.’’

Staging opera in nontraditional venues is nothing new for Helfrich. At the Castle, the action will take place on a small raised platform at stage left, and on a ramp that runs in front of the small orchestra pit. The main piece of scenery will be the governess’s desk. Costumes are from the period of the opera’s premiere, the 1950s.

While exploring the Castle during the early stages of production planning, Helfrich discovered a large cellar underneath the building - “musty, creepy, with rows of columns. And I thought to myself, this is ‘The Turn of the Screw!’ ’’ So he has incorporated live video feed from the cellar into the production, projected on two large screens behind the stage. The images provide a visual equivalent of the dream-like visions and hauntings witnessed by the governess, and interact in counterpoint with what is happening on stage.

Often, says Helfrich, the relationship between the silent video imagery is “intentionally inconsistent’’ with what the performers are singing and doing. In this way, he leaves it up to the audience to decide whether the spooks are real. As he points out, Britten already makes the ghosts of James’s story more credible by giving them words and music.

The BLO’s Nelson admits that the idea to use the Castle for “The Turn of the Screw’’ came about by chance. Several other venues (including the Cyclorama in the South End) were initially considered before all the pieces fell into place. Now she agrees that the pairing of opera and space could not have been more congenial. You could almost say the spirits were aligned.