Where the Wild Things Are (opera) dream is over, and Max starts to eat the food his Mama had left for him during his dream time. Where the Wild Things Are (opera) Where the Wild Things Are, Op. 20, is a 'fantasy' opera in one act by Oliver Knussen to a libretto by Maurice Sendak, based on Sendak's own children's book of the same title. Knussen composed the music from 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
Where the Wild Things Are Knussen, Sendak gave the monsters the names of his relatives: Tzippy, Moishe, Aaron, Emile, and Bernard. According to Sendak, at first, the book was banned in libraries and received negative reviews. It took about two years for librarians and teachers to realize that children were flocking to the book, checking it out over and over again, and for critics to relax their views. Since then, it has received high critical acclaim. Francis Spufford suggests that the book is "one of the very few picture books to make an entirely deliberate and beautiful use of the psychoanalytic story of anger". Mary