It is an adaptation of the Peter Stephan Jungk novel Der König von Amerika, a fictional work that re-imagines Walt Disney in his later years as a power-hungry racist.

The world premiere of the work took place at the Teatro Real on 22 January 2013 with Dennis Russell Davies conducting and directed by Phelim McDermott.

[4][5] Jones and McDermott directed the third production with Opera Queensland (Australia) for the Brisbane Festival, commencing 15 September 2014.

[3][8] The project idea was suggested by Gerard Mortier, who was appointed director in February 2007, and gave a copy of Jungk's novel to Philip Glass, seeing a perfect frame for a future production.

[9] The libretto by Rudy Wurlitzer is based on the controversial biographical novel Der König von Amerika by Peter Stephan Jungk.

When he was a child, Jungk's parents received frequent visits from their friend, physicist Heinz Haber, who at the time worked for Disney as a scientific consultant.

"[10] Glass describes the last years of the life of Walt Disney "unimaginable, alarming and truly frightening", but cedes him responsibility for his own ideas because he believes they are the product of the context in which he lived.

In this sense it recalls that "Disney has always been conscious of the attitudes of ordinary people and also allowed the masses to address the high culture by introducing the music of Tchaikovsky and others in his films."

For him, his opera "is not a documentary or portrait" but a "journey poetic and tragic" through the last months of the life of an artist who "faced the same doubts that beset us all".

The action goes from Disney's home town of Marceline, Missouri to his animated dream factory in Los Angeles.

As a child Walt killed an owl with his bare hands as he believed the bird represented a bad omen.

Scene 1 Walt and his brother Roy recall joy and simplicity in their youth in Marceline, a small town in the Midwest where they grew up.

He asks the nurse to make sure he is cryonised when he dies: "Put me in the mirror or congèle me in liquid nitrogen."

Walt asks them to swear on the American flag to honor their vow never to utter the word "die".

Scene 3 A few years earlier, in his studio office in Burbank, he recalls his successes with his brother Roy: "From Japan to Mongolia, Nepal, Portugal, Greenland, Peru, billions of people know who Walt Disney is.

He boasts of being the man through whom Ronald Reagan will become president and believes he will become more famous than Santa Claus, Moses, Zeus and Jesus.

Scene 5 In Anaheim, late at night, Walt is attempting to build an animatronic Abraham Lincoln, and is struggling with failure.

Scene 3 Walt recalls that Dantine was fired for trying to form a union and comments on his "stupid leftist" ideas: "I fired him because his leftist and unpatriotic comments insult all that Disney represents"; Walt dreams of a machine that would be able to replace his entire workforce.

Scene 4 Walt meets Josh, a fellow patient, as he is admitted into the intensive care unit.