ATL Opera Review: Scalia/Ginsburg
Legal nerds and Supreme Court devotees will enjoy Scalia/Ginsburg, Derrick Wang's new comic opera about the two iconic SCOTUS justices.
Now that the U.S. Supreme Court Term is over, how can SCOTUS devotees entertain themselves until the first Monday in October? The Originalist, the well-received play about Justice Antonin Scalia, concluded its run at the end of May. Supreme Ambitions (affiliate link) is a fun beach read, but it’s more about how law clerks and judges make it to the Supreme Court, not about what happens once they get there.
Here’s a recommendation for those of you with unsettled weekend plans: head out to the Castleton Festival, in a beautiful part of rural Rappahannock County, Virginia, and check out Scalia/Ginsburg, the new comic opera by Derrick Wang about Justice Scalia and his good friend but ideological adversary, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I attended the world premiere on Saturday, July 11; two performances remain, on Friday, July 17, and Sunday, July 19. (We’ve previously written about Wang and about how this opera came into being.)
Numerous legal luminaries attended last weekend’s premiere. The brightest star, of course, was Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg herself, looking fabulous in a white and turquoise shift in a tie-dye-inspired pattern that she paired with a white shawl so large it was practically a cape. People who see RBG in person sometimes comment on how small and frail she looks, and I’ve had that response when I’ve seen the petite jurist in the past, but on Saturday night I had the opposite reaction: she looked taller and more robust than before. Perhaps the 82-year-old justice drew invigoration from the left-leaning Term that just ended? (Justice Scalia, who has seen parts of Scalia/Ginsburg in a special performance at One First Street, wasn’t able to attend the premiere; he was in Rome.)
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Other legal eagles in the audience on Saturday night included the U.S. Solicitor General, Don Verrilli; D.C. Circuit Judge David Tatel (who hosted a gathering before the show at his nearby country house for the dozen or so clerks of his that he has fed into RBG’s chambers over the years); noted SCOTUS litigator Paul M. Smith, head of Jenner & Block’s appellate and Supreme Court practice ; former Tatel/Ginsburg clerk Karl Thompson, the acting head of the Office of Legal Counsel; another ex-Tatel Tot turned RBG clerk, Professor Jay Wexler, author of the forthcoming SCOTUS novel Tuttle in the Balance (affiliate link); Nina Totenberg, Queen Bee of the Supreme Court press corps; Michelle Olsen of Appellate Daily; Julie Silverbrook of the Constitutional Sources Project; and the summer associate class of Williams & Connolly, which turned the premiere into a firm outing.
(My companions for the evening, all lawyers, weren’t slouches either: Paul Hastings partner Igor Timofeyev and Vanderbilt law professor Brian Fitzpatrick, both former SCOTUS clerks; Donya Khalili, Vice President and COO of Indivisible, a new organization dedicated to “energizing and informing Americans about the value and potential of government”; New York lawyer Richard Bahrenburg; and my Secret Fiancé.)
Before Scalia/Ginsburg, we all had to sit through Ravel’s L’heure espagnole, which managed to be silly yet boring at the same time — imagine the operatic version of an episode of Three’s Company, or maybe a pizza-delivery porno (just replace the delivery guy with a mule driver). If you go to see Scalia/Ginsburg this weekend, arrive maybe an hour after the start time and enter at intermission, so you can catch just Scalia/Ginsburg.
Here’s the premise of Scalia/Ginsburg: a God-like figure called “The Commentator” swoops down upon One First Street and traps Justice Scalia in the courtroom. The Commentator, reminiscent of a ghost from A Christmas Carol, expresses displeasure with the justice’s frequent dissenting and wants Scalia to justify his approach to the law. The only way Scalia can escape from the sealed courtroom is by passing three trials (a la Mozart’s The Magic Flute).
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Before the trials begin, Justice Ginsburg busts her way into the courtroom and insists upon experiencing the trials alongside her friend and colleague. How did Justice Ginsburg enter after The Commentator declared that “no man shall enter”? She’s not a man, of course. As she quips upon arriving, “It’s not the first time I’ve had to break through a ceiling” — referring to how she repeatedly broke through glass ceilings that kept women from reaching the pinnacle of the legal profession.
The opera then follows the two justices as they undergo the trials together. The music is enjoyable, even if not highly original; as noted in various reviews of the show, it’s essentially pastiche, mixing together Verdi, Puccini, Christmas carols, The Star-Spangled Banner, and even a little jazz.
The performances are solid. Ellen Wieser as Ginsburg is especially compelling, with a strong, clear soprano voice and a stage presence and feminist swagger that Notorious RBG fans will adore. John Overholt as Scalia is also good (although I couldn’t help comparing him to Edward Gero, who did an uncanny Scalia impersonation in The Originalist). The set is minimal — a courtroom, decorated with statues who come to life to serve as a Greek chorus — but effective.
The primary reason for Supreme Court groupies to attend Scalia/Ginsburg is the funny, exceedingly clever libretto. Derrick Wang has managed to create a coherent narrative that successfully integrates huge amounts of constitutional theory (originalism versus living constitutionalism), legal scholarship, and landmark SCOTUS opinions. Legal nerds can indulge in knowing, self-congratulatory chuckles upon hearing shout-outs to McCulloch v. Maryland, Morrison v. Olson, and Bush v. Gore. Some of the rhymes — e.g., “trainer”/”Boehner” — are nothing short of inspired. The ending is dramatically satisfying but also offers a serious, inspiring, and heartwarming message about how the Court needs both a Justice Ginsburg and a Justice Scalia (instead of just making Justice Scalia the bad guy, which is what I expected going into the opera).
(You can check out the complete libretto on the website of the Columbia Journal of Law and the Arts, featuring impressively detailed and fully Bluebooked footnotes identifying Wang’s source material. But note that Wang updated the libretto for the premiere, tossing in references to “argle-bargle” and “pure applesauce” that the audience slurped up eagerly.)
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So Scalia/Ginsburg works as entertainment for legal nerds; does it work as an opera? As Philip Kennicott of the Washington Post puts it, “Is this meant to entertain and engage audiences, or is it a conceptual stunt aimed primarily at court watchers, lawyers and Washington insiders?”
I am something of an opera ignoramus, so I’m not qualified to address the operatic merits. Kennicott thinks it has potential, but suggests that Wang make some cuts (and I agree with Kennicott on ditching the “frozen lime souffle” aria near the end; although it’s a touching tribute to the late Martin Ginsburg that brought Justice Ginsburg to tears, it’s best appreciated by SCOTUS insiders with knowledge of Marty and Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s special bond). Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times offers a similarly mixed verdict. He praises Wang’s “funny, sentimental rhymed libretto” and the compassion it shows for both justices, but also thinks Scalia/Ginsburg doesn’t achieve its full potential, calling it “a lost opportunity for using opera as a means to gain profound understanding.”
The folks in attendance last weekend would probably dissent from that assessment. The audience laughed often and loudly throughout the show, and when the opera concluded, it received an enthusiastic standing ovation.
My group of six was pretty evenly divided between fans and detractors. Can you play the role of Justice Kennedy and break our tie? Head out to Castleton this weekend, check out Scalia/Ginsburg for yourself, and cast your vote.
P.S. It’s not far from Washington, so you can do it as a day trip from D.C., but you can also turn it into a lovely weekend in the country. Here’s a playbook based on what we did: have dinner at Foti’s, stay overnight at the lovely Hopkins Ordinary Bed & Breakfast, and stop at the Linden Vineyards on your way back to D.C. the next day.
(Flip to the next page for photographs from Scalia/Ginsburg.)
‘Scalia/Ginsburg’: An affectionate comic opera look at the high court [Washington Post]
‘Scalia/Ginsburg’ opera underscores how opposites can be in harmony [Los Angeles Times]
Justice Ginsburg’s Spin on a Supreme Opera, ‘Scalia/Ginsburg’ [Washington Wire / Wall Street Journal]
After ‘Scalia/Ginsburg’ Opera Premiere, Critics Hand Down Opinions [WSJ Law Blog]
Scalia/Ginsburg: A (Gentle) Parody of Operatic Proportions [Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts]
Earlier: A Law School Graduate Who Makes Beautiful Music
Phantoms Of The Opera? No, It’s Just Scalia And Ginsburg
ATL Theater Review: The Originalist
