OKC company performing Supreme Court-theme opera to cap headline-grabbing summer

With all the dramatic headlines America's highest court has made this summer, Rob Glaubitz figures it's the perfect time to bring a Supreme Court-theme opera to Oklahoma City.

"It's an awesome show. ... We were supposed to do it in a previous season, and with the pandemic, it just didn't work out," said Glaubitz, artistic director and co-founder of OKC's Painted Sky Opera.

"But I think it's incredibly timely right now."

Painted Sky Opera is closing the case on its 2022 summer season by staging the Oklahoma premiere of "Scalia/Ginsburg" Sept. 9-11 at Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center's Te Ata Theater.

Derrick Wang's acclaimed comic opera is inspired by the legal opinions of — and the unlikely friendship between — the late Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia (1936-2016) and Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020).

"I enjoy this show and this process. It's just fun to do these newer works," said mezzo-soprano Lauren Cook, who is portraying Ginsburg in Painted Sky's production.

"It's nice to dive into someone who is such an icon, (to go) beyond the pop culture references and look into the core of her. I've read her book, 'My Own Words,' a few times. ... To actually look into all of the cases that she brought forward in the '70s and all the stuff that she went through, that's why she's become such an icon.

"But there's the Notorious RBG — and then there's the justice."

Justices' opposing viewpoints play into operatic storyline

A composer and dramatist with music degrees from Harvard and Yale, Wang was a law student at the University of Maryland's Carey School of Law when he started writing "Scalia/Ginsburg." In 2013, he presented excerpts of his opera to the titular justices at the Supreme Court.

“Scalia/Ginsburg” premiered in 2015 at the Castleton Festival in Virginia and was revised for its 2017 production at the Glimmerglass Festival in New York. It has since been produced across the United States and abroad.

OperaDelaware’s 2019 mainstage production of "Scalia/Ginsburg," the best-selling show in the company’s more than 75-year history, was broadcast on national radio and featured on "Live with Carnegie Hall." Tenor Brian Cheney, who played Scalia in the OperaDelaware production, is reprising the role in his Painted Sky debut.

"I think RBG has been a part of more mainstream pop culture, but Justice Scalia was a really fascinating man. He was brilliant. He loved the law; he loved the Constitution. He loved words and the composition of words and how to use them. So, he was very, very specific with the wording in the Constitution," Cheney told The Oklahoman.

"He was an originalist and believed that the Constitution was already what it needed to be — as opposed to his good friend, Justice Ginsburg, who believed that the Constitution was a living, breathing thing that should evolve, as we and society evolve."

Scalia and RGB's longtime friendship makes the show's 'magic'

As their dueling opinions often showed, the conservative Scalia and liberal Ginsburg occupied opposite ends of the political spectrum.

Still, they were close friends for decades.

"I love the show — and the magic of the show is the friendship that these two justices had," Cheney said. "They were the best of friends: They loved each other, they spent time together, they vacationed together, they bonded through their mutual love of opera, which makes an opera about them even even better. But the whole point was that they vehemently disagreed with each other, but that was OK — which is the way it should be."

The justices even appeared together as extras in the Washington National Opera's 1994 opening-night performance of Richard Strauss's "Ariadne auf Naxos."

In penning "Scalia/Ginsburg," Wang was inspired not only by the actual writings of the justices but also by the operatic classics that they loved.

"It's a show for people who love opera and people who have never seen one. It's relatable in its relevance," said Cook, who made her Painted Sky debut last year in the OKC company's production of the transgender opera "As One."

Opera encourages people to 'focus on what we have in common'

Cook previously portrayed RGB in Opera Naples' Florida production of "Scalia/Ginsburg" in January 2020. Ginsburg died later that year, on Sept. 18, 2020, at age 87.

"It's nice to be able to revisit it and see it with a different set of eyes," Cook said. "It was just a different version of me doing that show, and now I'm able to come back and have a new approach with a new team. ... It's nice to come together with this company and put together a show — it's a really kind environment."

Directed by Glaubitz, with musical direction by Jan McDaniel, the Painted Sky production also will feature Jonathan Moots in the role of the Commentator.

"We've got a really wonderful show on our hands. ... Why this story is so important, especially today, is because we're really, I think, at a crossroads with our democracy," Cheney said.

"The point of the whole story is that two people can have opposing political perspectives and ideas and still get along and still love each other. ... Let's focus on what we have in common - that we're all humans, that we all love democracy, and we do love this country. And it's OK that we come at it from different perspectives."

'SCALIA/GINSBURG'

When: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 9-10 and 2 p.m. Sept. 11.

Where: Oklahoma Contemporary's Te Ata Theater, 11 NW 11.

Tickets and information: https://www.paintedskyopera.org/scalia-ginsburg.

Features Writer Brandy "BAM" McDonnell has covered Oklahoma's arts, entertainment and cultural sectors for The Oklahoman for 20 years. Reach her at bmcdonnell@oklahoman.com, www.facebook.com/brandybammcdonnell and twitter.com/BAMOK. Support her work by signing up for her See & Do Oklahoma newsletter and subscribing to The Oklahoman.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC company performing Supreme Court-theme opera 'Scalia/Ginsburg'