Where the Wild Things Are and Higglety Pigglety Pop!, Glyndebourne poster design

The largest poster that Sendak ever created was to accompany his double-bill opera program for the 1985 Glyndebourne Festival. This preliminary full-scale drawing sets out the plan for one of the most ambitious watercolors that Sendak executed. He collaborated with composer Oliver Knussen (1952–2018) on adaptations of Where the Wild Things Are and Higglety Pigglety Pop!, writing the libretti himself as well as designing the scenery, costumes and other production artwork including the present poster.

Here, in an earlier state of the final image, four Wild Things (Bernard, Moishe, Tzippy and Emil) loom over the theater's proscenium as a performance of Higglety Pigglety Pop! takes place. Among Sendak's notes for this draft are "Center theater!!!" and "Xtra Wild Thing?" In the final poster, the theater is indeed centered and an extra Wild Thing appears over Emil's shoulder, filling in the tableau of Sendak's iconic characters.