Today I went to the Gardner theater at Lancaster Country Day School, the K-12 school of two of my six kids, and saw the one-act opera "Scalia/Ginsburg."
Since my daughters are in their 30s, I have not been to the school in a while. The new theater is really beautiful.
I thought it would be fun to see what an opera about the friendship between the opera lovers Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia would be. The opera is a delight, both funny and reverent. It begins with rapid borrowings from familiar songs as Scalia sings about why he is completely right in his conservative views and the liberals are wrong.
Next the Commentator (Judge of Judges) enters to the music of "Don Giovanni" suggesting a very bad end for Scalia. Ginsburg enters, declares herself Scalia's friend, and stands with Scalia in his trial. Their friendship is their defense. We find out the entire opera is set in the moment Scalia has his fatal heart attack. Scalia is acquitted and goes to Heaven, and after a delay, Ginsburg follows.
Derrick Wang wrote and created the opera using the words of Scalia and Ginsburg. His website has videos of past performances. It also has links to a fully annotated libretto if you are curious about the words he used and the operas that inspired his work.
