Opera Naples' sixth annual Festival Under the Stars opened last Friday with “Voices of Triumph.” It runs five consecutive weekends. Executive Director Melanie Kalnins is really excited for this weekend’s performance in the Wang Opera Center.
“’Scalia/Ginsburg’ is a modern-day opera that was written by Derek Wang,” said Kalnins. “It reflects on the two very famous justices, Scalia and Ginsburg, who had very polarized views in terms of how they interpreted the Constitution, in terms of how they thought about politics and philosophy. But despite all this, they had a really deep respect for each other and a true love of opera.”
The opera’s unifying message - that if polar opposites like Justices Scalia and Ginsburg could find commonality and friendship, so can the rest of us - made it a perfect choice for Opera Naples’ observance of America250.
“We feel it was appropriate and important in our 250th year to program with that in mind,” Kalnins added. “Certainly, the Scalia-Ginsburg concert is part of that.”
It's part of America250, but not Opera Naples’ only America250 concert.
“Fast-forwarding to March, we will also be doing ‘Stars and Standards, an American Songbook Celebration,’” Kalnins noted. “We're going to have four singers who will be performing all of the great American composers, Gershwin, Berlin, Porter, music of that kind, 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.”
Performances of “Scalia/Ginsburg” are at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 21, and Sunday, Feb. 22 at 2 p.m.
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Festival Under the Stars
Running five consecutive weekends, this year’s edition is Opera Naples’ longest Festival Under the Stars.
Festival Under the Stars also remains the nation’s only outdoor opera festival.
The first four weekends take place in the Wang Opera Center, an intimate 320-seat black box theater. Then Festival Under the Stars moves to Baker Park for its final weekend when it will combine with the finals of the Luciano Pavarotti Foundation Opera Naples International Voice Competition.
Ginsburg on ‘Scalia/Ginsburg’
Derrick Wang majored in music at Harvard and received his master's in music from Yale. Believing it would also be useful to know something about the law, he enrolled in law school at the University of Maryland. In his second year of studies, he took a class in Constitutional Law. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg takes up the story from there.
“He read these dueling opinions, Scalia on one side, Ginsburg on the other and decided this could make a very funny opera,” said Justice Ginsburg in an interview about the opera.
“It opens with Scalia’s Rage Aria and he sings, ‘The Justices are blind. How can they possibly spout this? The Constitution says absolutely nothing about this.’ And then in my soprano voice, I answered, ‘Dear Justice Scalia, you are searching for bright line solutions to problems that don’t have easy answers, but the great thing about our Constitution is that like our society, it can evolve.’ So that sets up the difference between us.”
After remarking that the plot of Scalia/Ginsburg is roughly based on Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” Ginsburg continues, “Scalia is locked up in a dark room. He’s being punished for excessive dissenting. I then emerge through a glass ceiling to help him pass the tests he needs to pass to get out of the dark room. Then a character left over from Don Giovanni is astonished. He says, ‘He’s your enemy. Why would you want to help him? And I sing, ‘He’s not my enemy, he’s a dear friend.’ And then we sing a wonderful duet. It goes, ‘We are different. We are one. Different in our approach to reading legal texts, but one in our reverence for the Constitution and the institution we serve.’”
As Kalnins observed, Scalia and Ginsburg had deep respect for each other as well as opera as a common interest. In fact, they often attended opera performances together.
"We were best buddies," Ginsburg wrote after Scalia died in 2016. “We disagreed now and then, but when I wrote for the Court and received a Scalia dissent, the opinion ultimately released was notably better than my initial circulation. Justice Scalia nailed all the weak spots — the "applesauce" and "argle bargle" — and gave me just what I needed to strengthen the majority opinion. He was a jurist of captivating brilliance and wit, with a rare talent to make even the most sober judge laugh. The press referred to his ‘energetic fervor,’ ‘astringent intellect,’ ‘peppery prose,’ ‘acumen,’ and ‘affability,’ all apt descriptions. He was eminently quotable, his pungent opinions so clearly stated that his words never slipped from the reader's grasp.”
Justice Scalia once described as the peak of his days on the bench an evening at the Opera Ball when he joined two Washington National Opera tenors at the piano for a medley of songs. He called it the famous Three Tenors performance.
Opera Naples’ production
Opera Naples last performed “Scalia/Ginsburg” in 2020.
Justice Ginsburg is portrayed by Yejin Lee in one show and by Jenna Clark in the second performance. Elijah William Brown appears in the role of Justice Scalia.
“There is a third role,” Kalnins noted. “It's an allegorical figure who drops in throughout the opera.”
That character is known as the Commentator and is played by Steve Groth.
The production includes the accompaniment of a piano rather than a full orchestra.
“Typically, this opera is required via rights to be performed with 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.”
Yelena Kurdina will be pianist for both performances.
Mark Danni is stage director.
About America250
America250 is the national nonpartisan organization charged by Congress to engage every American in celebrating and commemorating the 250th anniversary of our country. Now through July 4, 2026, this effort is an opportunity to pause and reflect on the nation’s past, honor the contributions of all Americans, and look ahead toward the future we want to create for the next generation and beyond. It aims to inspire all Americans to strengthen their love of country and renew their commitment to the ideals of democracy through programs that educate, engage, and unite us as a nation. Toward that end, America250 is fostering shared experiences that spark imagination, showcase the rich tapestry of our American stories, inspire service in our communities, honor the enduring strength, and celebrate the resilience of the United States of America.
The U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission was established by Congress in 2016 to plan and orchestrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence of the United States. The nonpartisan Commission, chaired by former Treasurer of the United States Rosie Rios, is working with America250.org, Inc. to engage Americans across the country in designing the largest anniversary observance in our nation’s history.
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.
