Opera of the week: The Perfect American, London Coliseum, London WC2

 

Mark Pappenheim
Thursday 30 May 2013 10:40 EDT
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The creative team behind The Perfect American have had to find their own ways of animating Walt's world without using any actual Disney imagery
The creative team behind The Perfect American have had to find their own ways of animating Walt's world without using any actual Disney imagery (Teatro Real)

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Based on Peter Stephan Jungk's fictionalised account of Walt Disney's dying days, the latest of Philip Glass's operas offers a mythic portrait of the megalomaniac behind Main Street USA's most beloved cartoon characters.

Yet, thanks to copyright control, the creative team behind the opera's UK premiere – starring former Harvey and the Wallbangers baritone Christopher Purves – have had to find their own ways of animating Walt's world without using any actual Disney imagery.

Given director Phelim McDermott's spectacular puppet-enhanced staging of Glass's Gandhi portrait, Satyagraha, Mickey's loss might well be our gain.

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