Famed composer Philip Glass has been comissioned to compose an Opera based on novel “The Perfect American”. That novel by Peter Stephan Jungk examines the last few months of Walt Disney’s life as seen through the eyes of a fictional animator who worked for him. The New York City Opera company should debut the piece in the 2012-13 season.
The book “The Perfect American” is a ‘fictionalized biography’, meaning it’s not an accurate biography, but rather depicts a story or makes a point that the author wants to have made and often details are changed to fit. In fact, “The Perfect American” isn’t so much about Walt Disney as it is about the former animator who becomes obsessed with righting a perceived wrong. This certainly adds drama to the story, but makes me wonder why this story was chosen to depict Walt Disney instead of something more reality based.
(via Variety)
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Because Walt Disney has become as mythological a human being as Abraham Lincoln in American popular culture and so using him is very succinct shorthand which opens up a number of symbolic/social readings which can enliven the work? I think it’s fair game. It’s not like Disney themselves is giving us a very accurate image of the man…
I just wrote an article about Walt Disney’s biographical opera on our Chicago website. Check it out!
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