Disney getting Glass treatment
It took 36 years for Einstein on the Beach — the groundbreaking Philip Glass opera — to reach Toronto.
This weekend, finally, it is being performed at the Sony Centre as the flagship piece in the sixth edition of Luminato. But I’m betting it won’t be more than two or three years before we get a chance to see the next Glass opera.
Why? Because unlike Einstein, it will have a narrative; and because its subject is a man who is a figure of intense interest to millions of people, whether they happen to be operagoers or not.
This week, shortly after his arrival in Toronto for Luminato’s Einstein opening, I chatted with the influential and ubiquitous American composer about the 24th opera of his astonishing career.
“I’ve just finished Act 1 and will complete Act 2 this summer,” Glass confided.
It’s called The Perfect American and it is about the dying days of Walt Disney: the creator of Mickey Mouse, Fantasia and Disneyland. It is co-commissioned by Teatro Real Madrid and the English National Opera to mark the 75th birthday of one of the world’s most important composers.
Four years ago, the New York City Opera announced plans to produce this opera and then abruptly called the whole thing off.
What happened to City Opera must cause sleepless nights for artistic directors everywhere. Gerard Mortier, leaving the mighty Paris Opera after a long career, had agreed to move to New York and take over running New York’s No. 2 opera company. The Disney opera was one of his pet projects.
“Mortier is the godfather,” says Glass. “I had worked with him years earlier. We got along very well and he said, ‘Some day we will do something together again.’ ” Six years ago, Mortier sent Glass a book that fascinated him: The Perfect American, a semifictional book about Disney by Peter Stephan Jungk. Published in 2005, the book sees Disney through the eyes of a disgruntled ex-employee. “I read and thought, ‘This is a great idea.’ And we found the perfect writer to do the libretto, Rudy Wurlitzer.” Glass and Mortier also found their director, Phelim McDermott. But just as Mortier was moving to New York, the City Opera board went into panic mode over finances and slashed its operating budget from $60 million to $36 million. It had to abandon its longtime Lincoln Center home. It could not afford to produce The Perfect American. And Mortier quit and signed on instead to run a happily subsidized company in Spain. That could have spelled the end of the project. But Mortier couldn’t get it out of his mind. And eventually, he found a way to finance it, as a co-pro with the English National Opera.
Will Glass emphasize the dark side of Disney, who was regarded by some foes as an anti-Semitic, right-wing bigot?
“Why would I do that?” asks Glass. “If I write an opera about someone, I have to feel involved with the character, and live with him for two or three years. I don’t always share their visions. Disney was inspiring and complex, powerful but complicated. He created a genre of work through force of personality. What draws me to iconic figures like Gandhi, Einstein and Disney is that they always seem to have their feet in the mud and their head in the clouds. That’s the quality that links them to ordinary people.”
There are already plans to bring The Perfect American to this side of the Atlantic, but Glass says he can’t yet disclose them. It’s a safe bet New York and Los Angeles will be on the list of venues.
What about Toronto? Having brought Einstein here, Luminato would no doubt be interested in nabbing the Disney opera. The Canadian Opera Company’s general director, Alexander Neef, who worked under Mortier in Paris before arriving in Toronto, must also be considering it.
One thing is sure. When The Perfect American has its January premiere in Madrid and moves to London in June 2013, the whole world will be paying attention. Same-day rush tickets for Einstein on the Beach at the Sony Centre are $25 each (cash only), starting at noon Saturday and Sunday at David Pecaut Square.