GHOSTS, orphans, lust and deceit - it's all in a night (or two) at the opera. English Touring Opera (ETO) is bringing two haunting new productions of classic British opera to the region, The Turn of the Screw, and Ariodante.

Ariodante, by Handel, is ETO's first baroque opera and the perfor-mance will be accompanied on period instruments. The new translation by director James Conway sees a beautiful young woman, falsely accused of immorality cast out by her lover, family and her community.

Britten's The Turn of the Screw is an adaptation of Henry James's classic ghost story; one of possession by the spirits of the dead, set in a remote Victorian estate. Turn of the Screw is on Friday, November 14, at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham. Ariodante will be staged the following night.