Maurice Sendak double bill, at Aldeburgh Festival, Seven magazine review In the calm before the storm of the 2013 Britten centenary, this year's Aldeburgh Festival is taking the opportunity to celebrate another of its pivotal artistic figures. Oliver Knussen, who turned 60 on Tuesday and who has just received the Critics" Circle award for Outstanding Musician, dominated the festival's opening weekend as both composer and conductor. His two Maurice Sendak-inspired operas, Where the Wild Things Are and Higglety Pigglety Pop!, remain rarely enough performed to be special events, but they gained extra poignancy here after the author-illustrator's death last month. But thanks to her video animations the space feels bigger, and boundaries are further blurred as singers interact with the storybook projections or disappear behind the screens in silhouette. Jones's freewheeling imagination is in tune with the music itself, and the manic energy of Wild Things and lyrical whimsy of Higglety are delivered by the virtuosic Britten Sinfonia under Ryan Wigglesworth. The excellent casts are headed by Claire Booth (Max) and Lucy Schaufer (Jennie), both giving athletic turns. The Aldeburgh Festival continues to June 24; www.aldeburgh.co.uk