L'enfant et les sortilèges; Fantaisie Lyrique en deux parties. Poème de Colette, musique de Maurice Ravel

One could argue that L'enfant et les sortilèges is the French musical predecessor to Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. Collete sent her 1917 libretto to Ravel while he was in the French Army, but the war and his mother’s death took a toll on his health, delaying the collaboration until 1925, where it premiered in Monte Carlo. In this short opera, a young child is told by his mother to concentrate on his lessons, but the frustrated child can only think of anything else. When she reprimands him and sends him to his room without supper, he misbehaves further, embracing himself as a “wicked child” and tearing up his room. The room fights back, various furniture and animals come to life to explain the emotional consequences of his actions. In the end, the overwhelmed child cries out for his mother, ready to be comforted. L'enfant et les sortilèges remains one of the few operas to star a child protagonist and Ravel’s musical expression illustrates his psychological understanding through his dynamic orchestration. Each object / animal is personified by distinct qualities, such as the Fairy Book Princess’s harp solo or the symbols chiming the mechanical gears of the grandfather clock.