America 250. It’s a nonpartisan initiative to engage every American in commemorating the 250th anniversary of our country.
The Florida Legislature is joining in. It plans to award $1 million in grants this month to arts organizations doing America250 programming.
Grant or no grant, Opera Naples will perform two America250 shows, says Executive Director Melanie Kalnins. The first takes place on Feb. 20. It’s officially part of Opera Naples' annual Festival Under the Stars.
“We'll be doing performances of “Scalia/Ginsburg … a modern-day opera that was written by Derrick Wang. It's really a great opera, especially for our times,” said Kalnins.
When it came to interpreting the Constitution, Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg were polar opposites. But they bonded over opera, often going to performances together.
“It's a great opportunity in this political climate to celebrate these two famous figures with very different political beliefs who still found a way to find commonality and to find real friendship,” Kalnins observed.
In March, Opera Naples will present “Stars and Standards, An American Songbook Celebration.”
“We're going to have four singers who will be performing all of the great American composers: Gershwin, Berlin, Porter, music of that era and style. We'll open the concert with the National Anthem as seems appropriate. So it'll be another special way for us to commemorate the 250th year of America.”
Opera Naples performs in the Wang Opera Center (no relation to the composer/librettist), a 300-plus seat black box theater in the heart of Naples.
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In 2026, Opera Naples’ Festival Under the Stars will run for five consecutive weeks. The first four weekends will feature performances in the Wang Opera Center.
“Scalia/Ginsburg” takes place on the second weekend of the festival.
“Scalia/Ginsburg” is a one-act operatic comedy by composer-librettist Derrick Wang about the unlikely friendship between U.S. Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia — and the pivotal moment that would change the Supreme Court for years to come. Inspired by the Justices’ own words, this “buoyant show with a deeply serious core” (Süddeutsche Zeitung) was first introduced at the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013, ushering in the era of Supreme Court-themed art.
It premiered in 2015 at noted conductor Lorin Maazel’s Castleton Festival. It has been produced across the United States and abroad ever since.
It received its Australian premiere in 2021 at Orchestra Victoria. OperaDelaware’s 2019 main stage production of "Scalia/Ginsburg," the best-selling show in the company’s 80-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.” She hailed it as “a dream come true.”
“Opera Today” called “Scalia/Ginsburg” a “perfect…jewel,” with “OperaWire” adding that it’s “the kind of opera that should be everywhere.”
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?”
To further tantalize audiences, the performers dress in character.
“Opera Naples produced it in 2020, when Ginsburg actually was still alive,” Kalnins noted. “Whoever did the costumes for that production did a really great job, because they really do look the roles.”
There is a third character in the opera.
“It’s an almost allegorical figure who kind of drops in throughout the opera. So it's a three-part opera,” Kalnins said.
“Scalia/Ginsburg” will be performed on Feb. 20 with piano-only accompaniment.
“We actually were very fortunate in that typically this opera is required via rights to be performed with a full orchestra,” Kalnins noted. “Fortunately, we were able to connect with the composer who granted us permission to do this as a piano-only accompaniment, which works really nicely and makes it a little bit more intimate, especially in our space.”
For more on Opera Naples, hear/read:
- "A major cultural event, Opera Naples Festival Under the Stars a boon to Naples economy";
- "Winners of first Pavarotti Foundation Opera Naples Voice Competition announced";
- "Opera Naples helping new-to-opera attendees get a thrilling experience"; and
- "Opera Naples and Luciano Pavarotti Foundation expand collaboration."
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.