Where the Wild Things Are (opera)
Encyclopedia
Where the Wild Things Are is a 'fantasy' opera
in one act by Oliver Knussen
, his Opus 20, to a libretto
by Maurice Sendak
, based on Sendak's own children's book
of the same title. Knussen composed the music over the period 1979 to 1983, on commission from the Opèra National, Brussels.
In form and subject matter the work relates to Maurice Ravel
's L'enfant et les sortilèges
, as well as Stravinsky
's The Nightingale
. Knussen also included a number of musical quotation
s, including Debussy
's La boîte à joujoux and the bell motif from the Coronation Scene of Mussorgsky
's Boris Godunov
. Robin Holloway
has noted affinities of the score with aspects of Harrison Birtwistle
's Punch and Judy
and Benjamin Britten
's Death in Venice
.
at the Théâtre de la Monnaie
, under the title Max et les Maximontres, on 28 November 1980, conducted by Ronald Zollman. Knussen continued work on the score, and the final version was first performed by Glyndebourne Touring Opera
at the National Theatre, London
on 9 January 1984, with the composer conducting. The first US production was at the Minnesota Opera
in September 1985, directed by Frank Corsaro. The same Minnesota production was given at the New York City Opera
in November 1987. New York City Opera will revive the opera in April 2011. The cast includes Danya Katok as Max, Leslie Davis as Mama/Tzippy, and Lawrence Jones as Wild Thing with Beard, Andrew Sauvageau as Wild Thing with Horns, Adam Cannedy as Rooster Wild Thing, and David Salsbery Fry as Bull Wild Thing. Julian Kuerti is conducting and Sean Curran is directing. This is the first performance in the opera's history where the Wild Things are off-book.
The published score notes that "all the Wild Things should be played by dancers on stage with singers (amplified) off-stage".
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
in one act by Oliver Knussen
Oliver Knussen
Oliver Knussen CBE is a British composer and conductor.-Biography:Oliver Knussen was born in Glasgow, Scotland. His father, Stuart Knussen, was principal double bass of the London Symphony Orchestra. Oliver Knussen studied composition with John Lambert, between 1963 and 1969 and also received...
, his Opus 20, to a libretto
Libretto
A libretto is the text used in an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata, or musical. The term "libretto" is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major liturgical works, such as mass, requiem, and sacred cantata, or even the story line of a...
by Maurice Sendak
Maurice Sendak
Maurice Bernard Sendak is an American writer and illustrator of children's literature. He is best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, published in 1963.-Early life:...
, based on Sendak's own children's book
Where The Wild Things Are
Where the Wild Things Are is a 1963 children's picture book by American writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak, originally published by Harper & Row. The book has been adapted into other media several times, including an animated short in 1973 , a 1980 opera, and, in 2009, a live-action feature film...
of the same title. Knussen composed the music over the period 1979 to 1983, on commission from the Opèra National, Brussels.
In form and subject matter the work relates to Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
's L'enfant et les sortilèges
L'enfant et les sortilèges
L'enfant et les sortilèges: Fantaisie lyrique en deux parties is an opera in one act, with music by Maurice Ravel to a libretto by Colette. It is Ravel's second opera, his first being L'heure espagnole...
, as well as Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
's The Nightingale
The Nightingale (opera)
The Nightingale is a Russian conte lyrique in three acts by Igor Stravinsky. It is generally known by its French name...
. Knussen also included a number of musical quotation
Musical quotation
Musical quotation is the practice of directly quoting another work in a new composition. The quotation may be from the same composer's work , or from a different composer's work ....
s, including Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
's La boîte à joujoux and the bell motif from the Coronation Scene of Mussorgsky
Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the group known as 'The Five'. He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period...
's Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov (opera)
Boris Godunov is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky . The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar during the Time of Troubles,...
. Robin Holloway
Robin Holloway
Robin Greville Holloway is an English composer.-Early life:From 1952 to 1957, he was a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral...
has noted affinities of the score with aspects of Harrison Birtwistle
Harrison Birtwistle
Sir Harrison Paul Birtwistle CH is a British contemporary composer.-Life:Birtwistle was born in Accrington, a mill town in Lancashire some 20 miles north of Manchester. His interest in music was encouraged by his mother, who bought him a clarinet when he was seven, and arranged for him to have...
's Punch and Judy
Punch and Judy (opera)
Punch and Judy is an opera with music by Harrison Birtwistle and a libretto by Stephen Pruslin, based on the puppet figures of the same names. Birtwistle wrote the score from 1966 to 1967. The opera was first performed at the Aldeburgh Festival, which had commissioned the work, on 8 June 1968,...
and Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
's Death in Venice
Death in Venice (opera)
Death in Venice is an opera in two acts by Benjamin Britten, his last. The opera is based on the novella Death in Venice by Thomas Mann. Myfanwy Piper wrote the English libretto. It was first performed at Snape Maltings near Aldeburgh, England on 16 June 1973.The astringent score is marked by some...
.
Performance history
The first version of the opera was premiered in BrusselsBrussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
at the Théâtre de la Monnaie
La Monnaie
Le Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie , or the Koninklijke Muntschouwburg is a theatre in Brussels, Belgium....
, under the title Max et les Maximontres, on 28 November 1980, conducted by Ronald Zollman. Knussen continued work on the score, and the final version was first performed by Glyndebourne Touring Opera
Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an English opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England.-History:...
at the National Theatre, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
on 9 January 1984, with the composer conducting. The first US production was at the Minnesota Opera
Minnesota Opera
The Minnesota Opera is a performance organization based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was founded in 1963 by the Walker Art Center, and is known for premiering such diverse works as Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and Frankenstein by Libby Larsen...
in September 1985, directed by Frank Corsaro. The same Minnesota production was given at the New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
in November 1987. New York City Opera will revive the opera in April 2011. The cast includes Danya Katok as Max, Leslie Davis as Mama/Tzippy, and Lawrence Jones as Wild Thing with Beard, Andrew Sauvageau as Wild Thing with Horns, Adam Cannedy as Rooster Wild Thing, and David Salsbery Fry as Bull Wild Thing. Julian Kuerti is conducting and Sean Curran is directing. This is the first performance in the opera's history where the Wild Things are off-book.
Roles
| Role | Voice type | Premiere Cast, 28 November 1980 (Conductor: Ronald Zollman) |
Movement | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Max | soprano Soprano A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody... |
Jane Manning Jane Manning Jane Manning OBE is an English concert and opera soprano, writer on music, and Visiting Professor at the Royal College of Music. She has been described by one critic as "the irrepressible, incomparable, unstoppable Ms... |
||
| Mama | mezzo-soprano Mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above... |
Gwendoline Neish-Ross | ||
| Tzippy/female Wild Thing | mezzo-sopr | Mary King | Jenny Weston | |
| Moishe/Wild Thing with Beard | tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... |
Hugh Hetherington | Perry Davey | |
| Bruno/Wild Thing with Horns | baritone Baritone Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or... |
Jeremy Munro | Cenzig Saner | |
| Emile/Rooster Wild Thing | bass-baritone Bass-baritone A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the Dutchman in Der fliegende... |
Stephen Rhys-Williams | Brian Andro | |
| Bernard/Bull Wild Thing | bass Bass (voice type) A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C... |
Andrew Gallacher | Bernard Bennett | |
| Goat | dance-mime, Tenor Tenor The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2... |
Hugh Hetherington | Mike Gallant | |
The published score notes that "all the Wild Things should be played by dancers on stage with singers (amplified) off-stage".
Synopsis
Max is a rambunctious boy who dresses in a wolf suit. After he throws a tantrum, Mama (his mother) confines him to his room. Max then escapes in his dreams to a forest, and then to the island of the Wild Things. The Wild Things eventually hail Max as their king, and the "coronation" culminates in a frenzied dance, the Wild Rumpus. In the course of the Rumpus, Tzippy, the female Wild Thing, loses her head, which causes Max to halt the Rumpus. At the end, the dream is over, and Max starts to eat the food his Mama had left for him during his dream time.Recordings
- Unicorn-Kanchana DKP 9044 / Arabesque 6535-L: Rosemary Hardy, Mary King, Hugh Hetherington, Stephen Richardson, Stephen Rhys-Williams, Andrew Gallacher; London SinfoniettaLondon SinfoniettaThe London Sinfonietta is an English chamber orchestra founded in 1968 and based in London. The ensemble specialises in contemporary music and works across a wide range of genres, performing modern classics alongside world premieres, and includes music by electronica artists as well as folk and...
; Oliver KnussenOliver KnussenOliver Knussen CBE is a British composer and conductor.-Biography:Oliver Knussen was born in Glasgow, Scotland. His father, Stuart Knussen, was principal double bass of the London Symphony Orchestra. Oliver Knussen studied composition with John Lambert, between 1963 and 1969 and also received...
, conductor - Deutsche GrammophonDeutsche GrammophonDeutsche Grammophon is a German classical record label which was the foundation of the future corporation to be known as PolyGram. It is now part of Universal Music Group since its acquisition and absorption of PolyGram in 1999, and it is also UMG's oldest active label...
469 556-2: Lisa Saffer, Mary King, Christopher Gillett, Quentin Hayes, David Wilson-Johnson, Stephen Richardson; London SinfoniettaLondon SinfoniettaThe London Sinfonietta is an English chamber orchestra founded in 1968 and based in London. The ensemble specialises in contemporary music and works across a wide range of genres, performing modern classics alongside world premieres, and includes music by electronica artists as well as folk and...
; Oliver KnussenOliver KnussenOliver Knussen CBE is a British composer and conductor.-Biography:Oliver Knussen was born in Glasgow, Scotland. His father, Stuart Knussen, was principal double bass of the London Symphony Orchestra. Oliver Knussen studied composition with John Lambert, between 1963 and 1969 and also received...
, conductor