“Scalia/Ginsburg is for me a dream come true”: U.S. Supreme Court Justices write prefaces to Derrick Wang’s opera

U.S. Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia have written prefaces to Derrick Wang’s opera Scalia/Ginsburg, published in the Winter 2015 edition of the Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts.

Justice Ginsburg writes: “Scalia/Ginsburg is for me a dream come true.…One fine day, a young composer, librettist and pianist named Derrick Wang approached Justice Scalia and me with a request.…Would we listen to some excerpts from [his] opera [Scalia/Ginsburg], Wang asked, and then tell him whether we thought his work worthy of pursuit and performance? Good readers, as you leaf through the libretto, check some of the many footnotes disclosing Wang’s sources, and imagine me a dazzling diva, I think you will understand why, in answer to Wang’s question, I just said ‘Yes.’”

Justice Scalia writes: “While Justice Ginsburg is confident that she has achieved her highest and best use as a Supreme Justice, I, alas, have the nagging doubt that I could have been a contendah—for a divus, or whatever a male diva is called.…I suppose, however, that it would be too much to expect the author of Scalia/Ginsburg to allow me to play (sing) myself—especially if Ruth refuses to play (sing) herself. Even so, it may be a good show.”

Read Justices Ginsburg’s and Scalia’s prefaces here: 
Prefaces to Scalia/Ginsburg: A (Gentle) Parody of Operatic Proportions

Read the complete Scalia/Ginsburg libretto here: 
Libretto: Scalia/Ginsburg: A (Gentle) Parody of Operatic Proportions