Monday, September 29, 2008
Philip Glass pens Walt Disney opera
Variety: "New York City Opera has commissioned composer Philip Glass (“Koyaanisqatsi,” “The Hours”) to pen a new opera about Walt Disney, to be stage in collaboration with Brit legit troupe Improbable.New York City Opera has commissioned composer Philip Glass (“Koyaanisqatsi,” “The Hours”) to pen a new opera about Walt Disney, to be stage in collaboration with Brit legit troupe Improbable."
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17 comments:
Though I do like Philip Glasses music, Its a little hard to see him writing an opera, especially for Disney.
Though watching a montage of images of Disney characters to the words "Koyaanisqatsi" could be interesting... just doesn't seem that Disney to me.
I can see Glass writing the underscore to performance, and opera is something that I don't really see his style transferring to. His music is minimalist, but an opera is usually a grand event. Id like to see how this pans out. I'm thinking that the people the scored the old Disney films would have been a better choice.
P.s. Glass has already written many opera's. Wikipedia that shit...
oops. That should be operas...
I wonder if Disney is going to want to try to have a hand in this. I could see the company saying something like "The portrayal of Mr. Disney will have a direct effect on the persona of the company".
Having been forced to analyze "Koyaanisqatsi" for a humanities class last year I wonder if Philip Glass will be able to embody the spirit of Walt Disney in a way that will reflect what he has done. I am by no means saying that Glass is only good at one sort of music, but I feel that those two would be opposite genres and that perhaps there might be a more suited composer out there.
Although this sounds like a really cool concept, i have two majors issues with it.
1) does it seem to anyone else that basically most theatre today is based off or around Disney? I just wish more original work, on different topics/different characters would get its chance to shine.
2) what audience is this playing to? i don't really see the "disney crowd" mixing with the "opera crowd"
It's a memoir of sorts to help immortalize Walt. And i would say that it's more that shows are starting to drift towards reproducing Hollywood Films for the stage these days. Hey, who knows, it could turn out to be on ice!
I think this could be an interesting part of a new type of theatre movement. Given, I hate the movement, LEgally Blonde, The little Mermaid, etc. I think this will make a wonderful addition to that. I am actually a bit intrigued with the idea of viewing someone who has been held high with such great morals through someone elses eyes. Coming from Orlando, I know Disney in and out along with all of the traditions and little fun tricks Walt left in the park. Im excited to see how this goes but I am still catagorizing it in a pretty bad section.
I did not read the big biography of Walt Disney that came out a few years ago, but I still cannot imagine that Walt's life was really fascinating to have an opera written about him. If this is not written in conjunction with the Disney corporation, than any representation of Disney's famous characters will not be able to be including for copyright reasons. I cannot see this ever really picking up steam, but maybe 5 years down the line the show will be fully realized.
I am curious to see where this goes. I have heard parts of Glass' opera "Satygraha" and I liked it. I think musically this has the potential to be very good. As far as the plot is concerned, I have no idea what to expect. The company who commissioned this seems to know what they are doing. I can imagine that the Walt Disney Corp. is very interested in the direction this project takes.
I fear for the Disneyification of Glass's work. I mean, if Disney's likeness is going to be used at all, that camp is all over it. Should be interesting what they allow and where they put their foot down.
I think it's great that we get to see what it would have been for Disney in his later years. I would not have expected that the medium for this execution would be an opera, but Philip Glass is an extremely talented composer and it would be very interesting to see how the idea gets executed.
I love Philip Glass' work. I thought especially his work in Notes on a Scandal with Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett was stunning, though it iseasy for on to deduce that he does not often write music that children would find amusing. His music has a menacing air and dark undertones which, while giving a disney piece dmension, might be poorly suited.
these seem almost a little contradictory, a pioneer of minimalist music writing an opera for Disney, the pioneer of fantastical surrealism. I am not claiming that he would not be capable , but more that it doesn’t seems like the best fit. It’ll definatly be interesting to see how this turns out, I will have to see it.
I think its a little weird, coincidence, whatever you would like to call it, that so much of Disney's material is being transferred to the stage. Sure a story about how Disney lived his last few months, but it is still Disney. Someone needs to come up with something new instead of using the same basic material as everyone else. Best of luck to the show!
I think that this is an interesting idea, but like others who commented, I think that it is a little risky. Shows about peoples lives (aka biographies) are hard to write well while still making an impact on the audience. I also agree that I am a little tired of the Disney-like shows in theater today (yes, this is an opera). Hopefully this will center on his life and not focus too much on his creations, as important as they are.
One last question, like Sarah, I wonder whether the Disney crowed will mix with the opera crowed. They seem to have very different tastes.
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