DC Theatre Scene praises ‘knockout performance’ of ‘Scalia/Ginsburg’ aria at Glimmerglass
DC Theatre Scene, reviewing the Glimmerglass Festival’s July 19 event with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, praises the excerpt from the opera Scalia/Ginsburg as “the knockout performance of the afternoon” — and exhorts:
Oh, Washington community, let’s champion our own and bring this opera by Derrick Wang…to full fruition in the Washington area.
More:
The knockout performance of the afternoon was unmistakably Jacqueline Echols, in the opera-still-in-development, Scalia/Ginsburg. Echols performed Justice Ginsburg herself in her response to Scalia on the issue of legal constructionism. Echols is both beautiful and a vocally expressive singer-actress. She exudes a mature singer’s confidence and radiant courage that deftly portrayed the forward-thinking Justice. She moves effortlessly through a “Ginsburg aria” that consists of a pastiche of Carmen’s “[Seguidilla,]” a soulful jazzy melody, and the dazzling pyrotechnics of a gospel diva.
At the scene’s end, Justice Ginsburg remarked, “That is just exactly the way I am and sound — in the shower.”
[Photo: Glimmerglass Festival]
