Where the Wild Things Are (opera) The same Minnesota production was given at the New York City Opera in November 1987. New York City Opera revived the opera in April 2011. The cast included 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 conducted and Sean Curran was director. This was the first performance in the opera's history where the Wild Things Are was performed off-book, entirely from memory. The published score notes that "all the
Where the Wild Things Are be that of a child who, after a tantrum, is punished in his room and decides to escape to the place that gives the book its title, the "land of wild horses". Shortly before starting the illustrations, Sendak realized he did not know how to draw horses and, at the suggestion of his editor, changed the wild horses to the more ambiguous "Wild Things", a term inspired by the Yiddish expression "vilde chaya" ("wild animals"), used to indicate boisterous children. He replaced the horses with caricatures of his aunts and uncles, caricatures that he had originally drawn in his youth