Which opera was trending yesterday on UK Twitter?

No kidding, it was Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw.

Why? Because the Guardian ran a free live relay from Glyndebourne on its website and thousands who had never entered an opera house were moved to share their experience in less than 140 characters.

Those who watched may well have enjoyed a view of my right ear. My daughter and I sat before a bank of cameras, which is often an uncomfortable experience. But no extra lighting was required and the cams were silent and unobtrusive.

The show was tremendous, brilliantly sung, acted, played and directed, the tension rising notch by notch to an ambiguous, unsettling conclusion. Miah Persson was a suitably bewildered Governess, Toby Spence a chilling Quint. On design alone, Paul Brown’s set may be the finest Britten production I have seen – with the possible exception of  a claustrophobic Peter Grimes on the cramped stage of the old Glyndebourne house. omehow, none of the press pictures quite capture its ever-shifting ingenuity.