A girl turns into a tree, wins a prince, has her branches severed and, now monstrous torso, is neither woman nor tree. Love and a pitcher of water redeem all. John Adams's new opera, to a libretto he wrote with Peter Sellars, shuns the contemporary politics of Nixon in China or the forthcoming Doctor Atomic and turns to ancient South Indian mythology. The UK premiere of A Flowering Tree formed part of Sellars's New Crowned Hope festival at the Barbican, conducted by the composer and skilfully played by the London Symphony Orchestra.

You can read it as eco-fable or, less obviously, in its treatment of enchantment and transformation as a homage to Mozart's Magic Flute. Three singers (Eric Owens, Jessica Rivera and Russell Thomas) perform alongside three eloquent dancers, whose generic Asiatic temple dances form a key part of the narrative. Since you can predict the outcome of the story, the piece invites a trancelike reverie, interrupted every so often by exotic choral blasts from the versatile Schola Cantorum de Venezuela, got up in bright Bollywood costume.

Sellars staged it simply and effectively, enhanced by James F Ingalls's lighting design, in which suffused colours provided a perfect response to the luminosity of Adams's score. The LSO has a long and committed relationship with the composer and knows how to make the most of his singular, rich variety of minimalism, ever more limpid and unusual the older he grows (he is now 60).

Here, the subtle matching of harp, recorder, celesta had the delicacy of watercolour.

What did it all add up to? Search me, but it was soothingly enjoyable. Next for Adams fans: his Doctor Atomic Symphony at the Proms, on 21 August.

The Turn of the Screw
Glyndebourne
****

A different kind of mystery, psychological rather than magical, inhabits Britten's The Turn of the Screw. Jonathan Kent's technically impressive and intelligent staging, new to the Festival but already seen on tour, benefits from Paul Brown's handsome Fifties set. A vast grid of a window, ever changing, offers ghostly views of the evil Peter Quint and Miss Jessel (William Burden and Emma Bell). In a strong cast, Christopher Sladdin and Joanna Songi excelled as the children Miles and Flora. If Camilla Tilling's Governess is somewhat under characterised, Anne-Marie Owens's Mrs Grose more than compensates. The London Philharmonic brought chilling clarity to this extraordinary score, conducted with brisk assurance by Edward Gardner. The unlikely alchemical mix of Henry James and Benjamin Britten never fails to haunt the stage and the memory.

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