Wild Things Exhibition Guide

Goose Prop from The Goose of Cairo
Directed by Frank Corsaro
Performed by Lyric Opera of Kansas City, MO
1986
Mixed media
© The Maurice Sendak Foundation

In September 1986, Sendak returned to Mozart in the comic opera fragment The Goose of Cairo. The opera tells the story of how a determined lover rescues his imprisoned beloved by hiding in an enormous, Trojan horse–like goose.

Mozart started this opera right after the huge success of his Abduction from the Seraglio, which shares some of the plot elements and the exotic background, but he abandoned it. Only a few arias and some vocal parts have been passed down. This obscurity did nothing to dissuade Sendak’s effort of reviving the fragment, and in addition to designing all the costumes, the artist conceived of this 14-foot-tall animatronic goose, inspired by Elizabeth Taylor’s performance in the classic 1963 film Cleopatra.

Fantasy Sketch: Mozart, Der Schauspieldirektor (The Impresario)
February 11, 1987
Watercolor and ink on paper
© The Maurice Sendak Foundation

After studying the original autographed manuscript of Mozart’s short comic opera Der Schauspieldirektor (The Impresario) at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, Sendak created this full-color fantasy sketch. Although Sendak could not read music, he admired the beauty of Mozart’s handwriting, seeing his scores as visual works of art. In the sketch, Sendak emulates the feel of Mozart’s manuscript, transforming musical symbols into faces and figures.

Final Art for Idomeneo Show Curtain
1988
Watercolor, pencil, and ink on paper
© The Maurice Sendak Foundation

In 1988, Sendak began designing the Los Angeles Opera’s production of Mozart’s Idomeneo, which premiered in 1990. The opera focuses on the aftermath of the Trojan War, the King of Crete, and the romantic life of his son, Idamante.

The English artist William Blake was a consistent influence throughout Sendak’s career. The sea monster on the opera’s show curtain was “stolen,” as Sendak put it, directly from Blake’s Behemoth and Leviathan watercolor.

Final Art for Glyndebourne Festival Program Cover
1985
Watercolor, pencil, and ink on paper
© The Maurice Sendak Foundation

Maurice Sendak designed the program cover for the Glyndebourne Opera House and Festival in 1985. Among opera afficionados, Glyndebourne productions have a special place. Sendak said, “I grew up with Glyndebourne recordings of the Mozart operas. For my generation that was Mozart. Glyndebourne Mozart was Mozart as it should be done.”

Final Art for The Magic Flute Poster
1979–80
Gouache (opaque watercolor), ink, and pencil on paper
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York: Bequest of Maurice Sendak, 2013 © The Maurice Sendak Foundation

In 1978, the distinguished theater and opera director Frank Corsaro phoned Maurice Sendak “out of the blue,” and Sendak’s second career as a scenographer for operas began. Corsaro asked Sendak to design the sets and costumes for The Magic Flute, one of Sendak’s favorite operas.

Collaborating with Corsaro and the other artisans and musicians was enormously stimulating for Sendak’s art, influencing the rest of his career. He went on to design over a dozen more operas for the stage.

The Cunning Little Vixen
1981
Poster
© The Maurice Sendak Foundation

Even as Sendak was immersed in designing The Magic Flute, he was asked to take on Leoš Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen for the New York City Opera. The opera, originally based on a Czech comic strip, tells the story of the young fox girl Sharp-Ears, who was captured by humans but later escaped into the woods. There she meets a variety of other animals and her love, Gold-Stripe. It’s a story of overcoming captivity, finding love, and the cycle of death that leads into new life.

Studies for Vixen Sharp-Ears for The Cunning Little Vixen
1980
Watercolor and pencil on paper
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York: Bequest of Maurice Sendak, 2013 © The Maurice Sendak Foundation

Character Studies: The Cunning Little Vixen

The smart fox girl Sharp-Ears, her charming dandy-suitor, Gold-Stripe, and the inevitable litter of cubs offered Sendak a broad variety of characters he drew with charm and wit. Equally, all the creatures of the forest, such as badger, frog, owl, and mosquito, gave Sendak many opportunities for humorous character studies and imaginative costumes.

Final Art for Nutcracker Cover
1983
Watercolor on paper
© The Maurice Sendak Foundation

In 1981, Sendak considered designing sets and costumes for a production of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker at Seattle’s Pacific Northwest Ballet. Initially, he didn’t want to participate in yet another adaptation of the ballet. However, after speaking further with the choreographers, Sendak was excited that they “wanted a richer, darker version,” more accurately reflecting E. T. A. Hoffmann’s original story.

True to Sendak’s career-long exploration of childhood’s difficulty, this production emphasized how the ballet’s heroine, Clara, found growing up to be overwhelming and bewildering.

The Pacific Northwest Ballet staged Sendak’s Nutcracker for 31 years before retiring it in 2014.

Study for Clara for Nutcracker
1984
Pencil on paper
© The Maurice Sendak Foundation

Sendak’s long-time friend and assistant Lynn Caponera served the artist many times as a model. Here, she poses as the main character, Clara, in Nutcracker. Caponera is today the executive director of The Maurice Sendak Foundation.

Author: Tony Kushner (born 1956)
Illustrator: Maurice Sendak
Brundibar
2003
Book
Published by Hyperion Book CH; First Edition, 2003. © 2003 Maurice Sendak

Hans Krása (1899–1944) wrote the opera Brundibár in 1938. Starting in 1943, it was performed by Jewish children imprisoned in the concentration camp in Terezín. As propaganda, Nazis mounted productions for International Red Cross representatives who visited Terezín to inspect the living conditions. Nearly every child who performed in the opera would be killed in the Holocaust, as would Krása.

In 2003, Sendak designed sets for a production of Brundibar in Chicago, and playwright Tony Kushner wrote the English libretto. Sendak and Kushner also created a picture book adaptation in which two siblings need to raise milk money for their ill mother, but the town bully, Brundibar, tries to thwart their plans.

Study for Brundibar
2003
Pencil on tracing paper
© The Maurice Sendak Foundation

In initial drawings like this one, Sendak experimented with depicting the bully Brundibar as Hitler. However, author Tony Kushner and Sendak decided this imagery to be too obvious and would be a disservice to the story. Ultimately, Brundibar became a teenager with a wispy moustache, wearing a Napoleon hat.

Study for Brundibar
2003
Watercolor, pencil, and ink on paper
© The Maurice Sendak Foundation

Sendak and author Tony Kushner struggled to find the correct tone for Brundibar. Sendak said, “I don’t want to scare children to death. I really don’t want to, but I do want to tell them the truth. In Brundibar, all the signs of that are there and yet the composition is playful. The colors are bright. It somehow dilutes the expressions on their faces. These are doomed children.”