Philip Glass pens Walt Disney opera

NYC Opera commissions composer

By GORDON COX

New York City Opera has commissioned composer Philip Glass ("Koyaanisqatsi," "The Hours") to pen an opera about Walt Disney, to be staged in collaboration with Brit legit troupe Improbable.

Opera, planned to kick off City Opera's 2012-13 season, will be based on Peter Stephan Jungk's German-language novel "The Perfect American." Story imagines the last months of Disney as seen through the eyes of a fictional Austrian cartoonist who worked for him.

Co-founded by the creators of "Shockheaded Peter," which played Off Broadway in 2005, London-based Improbable ("The Wolves in the Walls") recently staged a production of Glass' 1980 opera "Satyagraha" at the English National Opera and at the Met.

Preem of "American" is timed to celebrate Glass' 75th birthday. Before that, the composer's 1976 opera "Einstein on the Beach" will be staged by original helmer Robert Wilson during the 2009-10 season.

Commission was announced by City Opera's incoming general manager and a.d. Gerard Mortier, the current director of Paris' Opera National who will take the reins at City Opera beginning with the 2009-10 season.

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