Higglety Pigglety Pop!; Where The Wild Things Are

Based on popular children's books by Maurice Sendak, these two operas with original librettos and designs by Sendak, and original scores composed and conducted by Oliver Knussen and the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, are, at best, a mixed bag. Where the Wild Things Are, the better of the two, explores the fantasy world of a young, and rather mischievous, boy named Max. Max sails to the Land of the Wild Things, where he encounters a number of colorful and interesting characters. In Higglety Pigglety Pop, a bored, pampered Sealyham terrier named Jennie strikes out on her own to find "something more than everything", and meets up with one oddball after another. Although younger children may be disturbed by a few of the scarier scenes (Sendak has a penchant for decapitation), the real problem with both of these operas is that--especially for a child unused to the peculiar qualities of opera--the words are practically unintelligible. Part of the problem may well be that the programs are encoded with Macrovision, an anti-copying system which has caused muddy audio and video reproduction on some VCR's. In other words, we can't fault the idea, we're just not terribly impressed with the results. Elementary schools could possibly use these titles, otherwise, not recommended. (Available from: Home Vision, 5547 N. Ravenswood Ave., Chicago, IL 60640; 1-800-262- 8600.) Please note that many of the Home Vision titles that we've reviewed are now available with public performance rights for a slightly higher price.