It may not be true that Walt Disney wanted to be cryogenically frozen, but Philip Glass's new opera about the last months of his life explores the man behind the myth. Nicholas Wroe meets its director, Phelim McDermott
It was remarkably soon after Walt Disney's death in 1966 that the urban myth emerged of his body being cryogenically frozen in the hope that one day, pending advances in medical science, he might be brought back to life. "Of course it was absolute nonsense," says Phelim McDermott, director of Philip Glass's new opera about Disney, The Perfect American, which opens at the English National Opera . "But for some reason, this was a myth that people wanted to believe. One of our singers grew up in Florida and says, when he was a kid, everyone just knew that Disney was underneath the Epcot Centre. And after a while, these myths can...
It was remarkably soon after Walt Disney's death in 1966 that the urban myth emerged of his body being cryogenically frozen in the hope that one day, pending advances in medical science, he might be brought back to life. "Of course it was absolute nonsense," says Phelim McDermott, director of Philip Glass's new opera about Disney, The Perfect American, which opens at the English National Opera . "But for some reason, this was a myth that people wanted to believe. One of our singers grew up in Florida and says, when he was a kid, everyone just knew that Disney was underneath the Epcot Centre. And after a while, these myths can...
- 5/31/2013
- by Nicholas Wroe
- The Guardian - Film News
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