‘Scalia/Ginsburg’ at Chautauqua Opera, July 9–August 6, 2021
From July 9 to August 6, 2021, Derrick Wang’s Supreme Court opera Scalia/Ginsburg will be the centerpiece of the Chautauqua Institution’s summer opera mainstage season.
The Chautauqua Opera Company’s weekly outdoor performances of Scalia/Ginsburg will resonate with five weekly themes of the Chautauqua Institution: “Exploring Today’s Unknowns”; “Trust, Society, and Democracy”; “Many Americas: Navigating Our Divides”; “The Authentic Comedic Voice”; and “Building a Culture of Empathy.”
Founded in 1929, the Chautauqua Opera Company is one of North America’s oldest continuously operating summer opera companies and fourth oldest opera company.
Video: Chautauqua Opera’s General & Artistic Director Steven Osgood talks with composer-librettist Derrick Wang and stage director Cara Consilvio about this year’s mainstage production of Scalia/Ginsburg. The exchange includes insights on the process of building the production for the summer assembly during the COVID-19 pandemic. [Date: May 25, 2021. Duration: ≈60 min.]
Excerpt from the Chautauqua Institution’s announcement:
March 29, 2021
CHAUTAUQUA OPERA COMPANY CELEBRATES VERSATILITY, CREATIVITY IN 2021 SEASON
CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y. — Chautauqua Opera Company today unveils program plans for the 2021 season, including two mainstage productions at the open-air Performance Pavilion on Pratt Avenue….
The mainstage performances highlight the versatility of Chautauqua Opera Company through [a] new production[] of Derrick Wang’s Scalia/Ginsburg…. The 2021 repertoire responds to the issues of the day….
…
Hailed as “a dream come true” (Ruth Bader Ginsburg), a “perfect…jewel” (Opera Today), and “the kind of opera that should be everywhere” (OperaWire), Scalia/Ginsburg is a one-act comedy about the close and unlikely friendship between U.S. Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia. Created by composer-librettist Derrick Wang and inspired by the Justices’ own words, this “buoyant show with a serious core” (Süddeutsche Zeitung) was first introduced at the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013, ushering in the era of Supreme Court-themed art. Premiered in 2015 at noted conductor Lorin Maazel’s Castleton Festival and revised for a sold-out 2017 production at The Glimmerglass Festival, Scalia/Ginsburg has since been produced across the United States and received its sold-out Australian premiere in 2021. OperaDelaware’s 2019 production of Scalia/Ginsburg, the best-selling show in the company’s 75-year history, has been broadcast on national radio and featured on Live with Carnegie Hall. Justices Ginsburg and Scalia themselves wrote forewords to Derrick Wang’s libretto, an early version of which was published in the Columbia Journal of Law and the Arts and excerpted as a chapter in Justice Ginsburg’s 2016 book My Own Words. The Los Angeles Times wrote: “Could we please make it a constitutional requirement that no one can be sworn into office in the White House or Congress without having first seen Scalia/Ginsburg?”
“There could not be a more perfect time for Chautauqua Opera to produce Scalia/Ginsburg,” [said Steven] Osgood [general and artistic director of Chautauqua Opera Company, and conductor of Scalia/Ginsburg]. “We look forward to opening our season with this highly acclaimed, hysterically funny and poignant chamber opera. Our new production, which will embrace the openness of the Pavilion setting, will also be a delightful introduction to the art of opera for many new opera patrons.”
“I am delighted that Chautauqua Opera is producing Scalia/Ginsburg,” said composer-librettist Derrick Wang. “I am grateful that Scalia/Ginsburg and its theme, ‘We are different, we are one,’ will have the chance to resonate with the Chautauqua Institution’s 2021 themes of democracy, empathy, innovation, comedy, and navigating our divides.”
Tenor Chauncey Packer, a star of the opera and concert stages from the Metropolitan Opera to Teatro alla Scala, makes his Chautauqua Opera debut singing the role of Justice Antonin Scalia. Mezzo-soprano Kelly Guerra will sing the role of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and lyric bass Michael Colman will return to the role of The Commentator, which he has previously sung with Opera Carolina and Opera Grand Rapids. Both Guerra and Colman are Apprentice Artists in Chautauqua Opera’s 2021 Young Artist Program. Cara Consilvio returns to Chautauqua Opera to direct…. Steven Osgood conducts.
Scalia/Ginsburg
An Opera by Derrick Wang
Performances at 4:00 p.m. [ET] July 9, 16, 23, 30 and August 6 [2021]
Cara Consilvio, Director
Steven Osgood, Conductor
Efren Delgadillo Jr., Stage Design
Michael Baumgarten, Lighting Design
B.G. FitzGerald, Costume Design
Martha Ruskai, Wig and Makeup Design
Cast
Kelly Guerra, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Chauncey Packer, Justice Antonin Scalia
Michael Colman, The Commentator
…
***
More information and tickets here.
Read the full 2021 season announcement here.
