‘Max’ costume

Where The Wild Things Are – An opera by Oliver Knussen, Directed and Designed by Netia Jones.

I was asked to make opera singer Claire Booth look like Max from Maurice Sendak’s beautifully illustrated Where The Wild Things Are. Director Netia Jones wanted the costume as accurate to the illustrations as possible. Obviously Claire is a grown woman, and Max, an illustrated boy; so considerable structuring was needed to help alter Claire’s natural proportions, making her head larger, a rounder belly and those large wolf feet.

The opera was performed as a double bill with an operatic interpretation of another of Sendak’s book, Higgledy Piggledy Pop. It was performed at 3 venues over 2012.

Aldeburgh Music Festival – June 2012
Disney Concert Hall, LA – October 2012
Barbican – November 2012

Image credits:
1. Mark Allan
2 & 4. Netia Jones
5. Maurice Sendak