WORLD PREMIERE OF “THE PERFECT AMERICAN”, BY PHILIP GLASS LIBRETTO BY RUDY WURLITZER, BASED ON THE NOVEL “DER KÖNIG VON AMERIKA” BY PETER STEPHAN JUNGK

THE NIGHTMARE OF A HAPPY WORLD …

At 75 years of age, Philip Glass, one of the leading figures in 20th century music, composed a new work for the Teatro Real, where it will be given its world premiere next 22nd January,

2013.

This is the first opera devoted to Walt Disney, one of the persons with greater influence over the consumer market and who inspired the novel Der König von Amerika, by Peter Stephan Jungk.

Children nowadays only see mice and ducks as Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck, thanks to the image invented for them by the Walt Disney Company. In opposition to the world of happiness he devised, the existence of this “perfect American” was marked by an unhappy youth and a personality whose “political correctness” outdid that of even Richard Nixon. At his dream factory, only men were hired to draw. Women were limited to coloring in the sketches …

Philip Glass, who had already based some of his operas on influential characters of the 20th century such as Einstein or Gandhi, decided to focus his new score on Walt Disney, based on the

Stephan Jungk’s book. This time it is Wilhelm Dantine, an Austrian cartoonist that worked for

- 1 - Walt Disney company during the 40s and 50s until he was fired, who, from the admiration and resignation, presents this mysterious, influential and complicated personality, who appears in the opera surrounded by his close family and some symbolic characters -like Abraham Lincoln or

Andy Warhol- during the last six months of his life.

*****

Dennis Russel Davies, will be, once more, responsible for the musical direction of a new creation by Glass. This American conductor and pianist, who has worked throughout his career together with numerous contemporary composers, has conducted in many occasions some of the best known symphonies and operas by Philip Glass. Phelim McDermott, who has already collaborated with the composer as producer of the opera Satyagraha, will take charge of the stage direction together with Dan Potra, as set and costumes designer.

The English baritone Christopher Purves will play the role of Walt Disney and David

Pittsinger, the role of Roy (his older brother). Donald Kaasch will be Dantine, the cartoonist, and Janis Kelly, Hazel Geroge, the Walt Disney’s lover). The cast also includes Marie

McLaughlin (Lillian Disney), Sarah Tynan (Sharon), Nazan Fikret (lucy), Zachary James

(Abraham Lincoln), John Easterlin (Andy Warhol)

The Perfect American will be shown live, the 6 February 2013 on Mezzo TV and through the Teatro Real website, Palco Digital (‘Digital Box’) a newly-launched service which allows any user to receive our operas live in high definition through the internet using any computer or mobile device. The recording will also be released on DVD, coproduced with Idéale Audience and EuroArts Music.

- 2 - Kind regards from Madrid

Letter from Peter Stephan Jungk to the Teatro Real

December, 2011

During my childhood in Los Angeles, we didn’t have a television set so I could only watch the cartoons produced by the Disney Studios when we were travelling, in hotel rooms and, very occasionally, in cinemas. I found those images fascinating and hypnotic. Ever since then, my curiosity has done nothing but grow: who was that man behind those cartoons, imbuing them with such personality. A man who accompanied the lives of millions of people even in their dreams and nightmares. His name will live on for a hundred and two hundred years. The more I learnt about the man, the more complex the portrait I was building up for him. His beautiful flowing signature became for me the key: it can be seen on any Disney product, but it was one of his thousands of draughtsmen who created it for him and, with great effort, Walt strove to imitate it. I feel a profound astonishment that this man, one of the most influential figures of the 20th century, never personally created a single one of his famous characters. Only through the irradiation of his charismatic personality was he able to drive hundreds of artists to give of their best, even the most they could every give, and so adorn himself through the pens of others. But without his ideas, without his vision, all the films with his signature would never have existed. The Perfect American combines reality with inventions to bring this unique character to life. Through the free form of a novel, as in the opera by Philip Glass, it is possible to perceive and understand more about Disney than in a densely-documented biography. For this reason, I created the figure of Wilhelm Dantine, a failed artist, as the counterpoint to Disney; I needed an opponent who could recriminate Walt Disney for everything that I wanted to reproach him for and, at the same time, he admired in him from the bottom of his heart.

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