New York City Opera revived the opera in April 2011. The same Minnesota production was given at the New York City Opera in November 1987. The first US production was at the Minnesota Opera in September 1985, directed by Frank Corsaro. 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 version of the opera was premiered in Brussels at the Théâtre de la Monnaie, under the title Max et les Maximonstres on 28 November 1980, conducted by Ronald Zollman. Robin Holloway has noted affinities of the score with aspects of Harrison Birtwistle's Punch and Judy and Benjamin Britten's Death in Venice. Knussen also included a number of musical quotations, including Debussy's La boîte à joujoux and the bell motif from the coronation scene of Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov. 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 composed the music from 1979 to 1983, on commission from the Opèra National, Brussels. 20, is a fantasy opera in one act, nine scenes, by Oliver Knussen to a libretto by Maurice Sendak, based on Sendak's own 1963 children's book of the same title.
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