{"id":3572,"date":"2012-05-08T08:59:12","date_gmt":"2012-05-08T13:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=3572"},"modified":"2012-05-08T08:59:12","modified_gmt":"2012-05-08T13:59:12","slug":"the-death-of-maurice-sendak-at-83-we-ate-him-up-we-loved-him-so","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2012\/05\/08\/the-death-of-maurice-sendak-at-83-we-ate-him-up-we-loved-him-so\/","title":{"rendered":"The death of Maurice Sendak at 83: We ate him up; we loved him so"},"content":{"rendered":"

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American children’s author Maurice Sendak died this morning in Danbury, Conn., aged 83, from complications following a stroke he suffered on Friday, according to longtime caretaker Lynn Caponera.<\/p>\n

He wrote 17 books and illustrated nearly 100, none more popular than Where the Wild Things Are<\/em>, in 1963. It was made into a film in 2009, as well as into an opera.<\/p>\n

Sendak had a huge interest in opera and ballet, providing direction and design for numerous production. This included helping Tony Kushner with a new production of Brundibar<\/em>, a children’s opera written in a Nazi concentration camp.<\/p>\n

Sendak’s partner of 50 years, Eugene Glynn, died in 2007. Sendak, who had his first heart attack at age 39, had a quadruple-bypass in 2008 and had slowed down markedly in recent years, but remained keenly interested in any project that involved his books.<\/p>\n

A thorough obituary compendium on the Brooklyn native has just been published in The New York Times<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here is a clip from an opera adaptation Sendak made of Where the Wild Things Are<\/em> for Glyndebourne in 1984, with British composer Oliver Knussen, followed by a wonderful production of Sergei Prokofiev’s The Love of Three Oranges<\/em> that he conceived, also for Glyndebourne:<\/p>\n