Wednesday, January 09, 2013

That's Opera, Mick

Operat librettos can be created from many things.

A British-designed and directed opera about Walt Disney which premieres in Spain this month before coming to London has been forced to tell the great cartoonist's story without any of the images of the characters that made him a household name. ...

The Perfect American, the latest work by the acclaimed composer Philip Glass, concentrates on the last years of Disney's life, when he lay dying of lung cancer while planning to have his body frozen. It portrays Disney as a megalomaniac with McCarthyite, racist and misogynist tendencies, so it is clear why the global entertainment corporation has denied rights. Yet, ironically, the most damaging charge the new opera levels at a man whose vision continues to dominate children's culture is probably the claim that he did little actual work on the drawings

All of us have light and dark qualities. Mr. Disney undoubtedly had a combination of both, just like ... everybody else.

This work is (apparently) going in the "Disney Version" direction. "Walt was a toad" seems to be the theme. Revisionist history certainly has its place, but I'm not sure this will revise our rememberance of the past to many people's satisfaction.

3 comments:

Floyd Norman said...

Such wholesale garbage.

As for the comment, Walt Disney did little work on the drawings, I'll guarantee you that Steve Jobs wasn't assembling circuit boards at Apple either.

Grant said...

Yes, everyone knows that. Just because you briefly worked at companies they started doesn't mean you knew them or even worked with them or even met them.

Floyd Norman said...

Thanks, Grant. You're clearly more knowledgeable than I am. Next time we'll come to you for insight.

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