Philip Glass – The Perfect American
Purves; Pittsinger; Kaasch; Kelly; McLaughlin; Teatro Real Madrid; Dennis Russell Davies
Opus Arte OA1117D
The 20+ operas of Philip Glass for the most part astonish and intimidate in equal measure. These works of genius are cerebral affairs – relying heavily on subtle symbolism, full abstraction and an expounding on the minimalist musical idiom. In short, they are usually not for the uninitiated. Fear not opera lovers, The Perfect American is what I would describe as Philip Glass in his “verismo” period. It is a shockingly traditional opera, devoid of abstract concepts, telling the story of the last months in the life of Walt Disney. The work relents in the use of minimalism for the sake of a more John Adams-like approach to melodic structures and simple arias and duets. All that does not mean this is Glass-lite. There is still the tremendous discipline and intellectual rigour that we so value in his work.
The story is essentially a deconstruction of Disney, who is revealed to be a reactionary, union-crushing opponent of human and civil rights. He is tangled in a relentless pursuit of commercialism and profit – and, when faced with terminal illness, the pursuit of cryogenic immortality. So what would make him an operatic protagonist? Well, the very dream of Disney’s, to create a machine to replace all his “ungrateful communist workers,” is what destroyed Disney’s world. Generic, computer-generated cartoons have long replaced painstakingly hand-painted cells and have destroyed the pastoral, naively idealistic America seemingly constructed by his studios. It may be glib to say that the transformation of Hannah Montana into Miley Cyrus was the death knell to Disneyland, but this finally turned Walt Disney into an anachronistic, even tragic figure – worthy of an opera.
