Announcing the World Premiere Production of ‘Scalia/Ginsburg’
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‘Scalia/Ginsburg’ Opera by Derrick Wang to Receive World Premiere Production at Castleton Festival in July 2015
Castleton, VA – December 10, 2014 – Scalia/Ginsburg, a new American opera about U.S. Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia, will receive its world premiere production on July 11, 17, and 19, 2015, at the Castleton Festival in Virginia.
In the plot of this comic opera, Justices Ginsburg and Scalia must pass through three cosmic trials to secure their freedom. The catch: they may have to agree on the Constitution. Derrick Wang’s Scalia/Ginsburg is a valentine to law and opera, where the law’s leading players go toe-to-toe and trill-to-trill in a (gentle) parody of operatic proportions. Opinions will be offered. Dissents will be delivered. And justice will be sung.
Scalia/Ginsburg began its journey in a presentation at the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2013, and since then, excerpts from the opera have been presented in concert by musical and legal organizations including the Washington National Opera, Glimmerglass Festival, Maryland Opera Studio, National Constitution Center, and Second Circuit Judicial Conference (co-sponsored by Columbia Law School) with artists from Opera Saratoga.
One such concert presentation was at the Castleton Festival, a music festival founded by the late conductor Maestro Lorin Maazel and Dietlinde Turban Maazel. At the Castleton Festival, selections from Scalia/Ginsburg were enthusiastically received as part of Justice Ginsburg’s sold-out “Law in Opera” presentation in June 2014. This presentation inspired the Castleton Festival to commission the world premiere production of Scalia/Ginsburg.
“I am excited to work with the Castleton Festival on the world premiere production of Scalia/Ginsburg,” said Derrick Wang, the opera’s composer and librettist. “Castleton embodies Maestro Lorin Maazel’s dedication to new work, young artists, and the transformative power of opera. It is a great honor to take part in his musical legacy.”
A publication of the annotated libretto [script] is forthcoming, with prefaces by Justices Ginsburg and Scalia.
About Derrick Wang (Composer & Librettist, Scalia/Ginsburg)
Derrick Wang (composer and librettist of the opera Scalia/Ginsburg) is an interdisciplinary composer, lyricist/librettist, pianist, and speaker. His compositions have been honored by ASCAP and BMI, performed by groups such as the American Modern Ensemble, Washington National Opera, and Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, and heard in venues from New York to Shanghai. His annotated libretto to Scalia/Ginsburg will be published, with prefaces by U.S. Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia, by the Columbia Journal of Law and the Arts in 2015. As a speaker, Derrick Wang engages audiences in the United States and abroad in discussing interdisciplinary topics, including the intersection of music and law. Recent appearances include presentations for the National Constitution Center, the Second Circuit Judicial Conference, and the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. Previously, he was a Resident Artist (Composer-Librettist) in American Lyric Theater’s Composer-Librettist Development Program. He is a graduate of Harvard University, the Yale School of Music, and the University of Maryland Carey School of Law.
CONTACT:
Felicia Knight
(207) 831-5676
Felicia@KnightCanney.com
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Read the Castleton Festival’s 2015 season announcement here: http://bit.ly/SG-CF1
