Philip Glass’s hypnotic opera The Perfect American invites us to unravel the mystery behind the creator of the world’s largest animation empire: Walt Disney. Directed by Dennis Russell Davies and Phelim McDermott, the stage design transforms the sugar-coated American dream into a canvas of pulsating rhythms and surreal images, alongside an impressive cast in which Christopher Purves plays Walt Disney himself, accompanied by David Pittsinger as his brother Roy and John Easterlin as the iconic Andy Warhol, amongst others.
Based on Peter Stephan Jungk’s controversial fictionalised biography, this heart-wrenching drama confronts the tycoon’s human side with his own demons during the final months of his life. The plot explores how the father of universal characters grapples with death, physical decline and the onslaught of his own ideological anxieties during the interwar period.
Opera in two acts
Music by Philip Glass (1937)
Libretto by Rudy Wurlitzer, based on the novel Der König von Amerika by Peter Stephan Jungk
World premiere, commissioned by the Teatro Real and the English National Opera, London
Artistic team
Conductor | Dennis Russell Davies
Stage director | Phelim McDermott
Set and costume designer | Dan Potra
Lighting designer | Jon Clark
Choreographer | Ben Wright
Video | Leo Warner (59 Productions)
Chorus master | Andrés Máspero
Cast
Walt Disney | Christopher Purves
Roy Disney | David Pittsinger
Dantine | Donald Kaasch
Hazel George | Janis Kelly
Lillian Disney | Marie McLaughlin
Sharon | Sarah Tynan
Diane | Nazan Fikret
Lucy / Josh | Rosie Lomas
Abraham Lincoln / Funeral home employee | Zachary James
Andy Warhol | John Easterlin
Chuck / A doctor | Juan Noval-Moro
A secretary | Beatriz de Gálvez
A nurse | Noelia Buñuel
Actors | The Improbable Skills Ensemble
Teatro Real Chorus and Orchestra
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