Where the Wild Things Are

Based on Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are, one of the world’s best selling and most beloved children’s books, this opera will enchant children and adults alike. To turn his story about a young boy who travels to a faraway island full of wild creatures into an opera libretto, author Maurice Sendak let his imagination run riot. He invented, for instance, a new language for the wild creatures that Max meets on the island. This inspired British composer Oliver Knussen to what is probably his most adventurous music: It whistles, squeaks, sparkles, shines, entices and dances with delightful lightness. This production at the MusikTheater an der Wien “captivates as a kind of Gesamtkunstwerk” (Kurier). With loving attention to even the smallest detail, director and puppet virtuoso Nikolaus Habjan and his team created fabulous life-size puppets for Max and his “wild things”. The singers are in the bodies of the puppets and puppeteers handle the gestures and facial expressions. “The result is a visually stunning round dance of monsters” (Kleine Zeitung).