(no subject)
Jun. 15th, 2022 09:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seekingferretThe Impresario by Mozart
The opening act of a double bill at the Princeton Festival Sunday night, performed in English with what I'm given to understand is a fairly loose adaptation of the original. This was highlighted by the hilariously chaotic trio where the rival prima donnas argue with their mutual paramour about who should headline the show, and the whole thing was funny but not very deep.
Scalia/Ginsburg by Derrick Wang
Just as enthralling the second time around, though I think I felt a little more ambivalent about its conclusions given where the court is in 2022 without these two titans of law on the court. Scalia argues forcefully for a fixity of law that everyone can rely on, Ginsburg points out that the laws are sometimes wrong and the Constitution was written by humans who were flawed, so the courts need to push the laws on a more just path... but they converge on the idea that as long as they honestly argue their positions and push for justice, America will move forward. None of this is breaking particularly new ground, what is exciting about Scalia/Ginsburg is the form, as an opera about the courts and particularly about these two friends and lovers of opera. The opera mashes classic European grand opera, both narratively and musically, with American musical forms and narrative structures. Scalia and Ginsburg's identities as children of immigrants figure significantly into the story. That's not a coincidence. The American experiment with democracy is something that is both new and old, European and American, welded awkwardly together. It doesn't always work, sometimes it fails, but both traditionalism and progressivism need to be part of its trajectory. I'm somewhat more skeptical of that idea with the current court, but it was still beautiful and inspiring to hear it communicated through music.
The opening act of a double bill at the Princeton Festival Sunday night, performed in English with what I'm given to understand is a fairly loose adaptation of the original. This was highlighted by the hilariously chaotic trio where the rival prima donnas argue with their mutual paramour about who should headline the show, and the whole thing was funny but not very deep.
Scalia/Ginsburg by Derrick Wang
Just as enthralling the second time around, though I think I felt a little more ambivalent about its conclusions given where the court is in 2022 without these two titans of law on the court. Scalia argues forcefully for a fixity of law that everyone can rely on, Ginsburg points out that the laws are sometimes wrong and the Constitution was written by humans who were flawed, so the courts need to push the laws on a more just path... but they converge on the idea that as long as they honestly argue their positions and push for justice, America will move forward. None of this is breaking particularly new ground, what is exciting about Scalia/Ginsburg is the form, as an opera about the courts and particularly about these two friends and lovers of opera. The opera mashes classic European grand opera, both narratively and musically, with American musical forms and narrative structures. Scalia and Ginsburg's identities as children of immigrants figure significantly into the story. That's not a coincidence. The American experiment with democracy is something that is both new and old, European and American, welded awkwardly together. It doesn't always work, sometimes it fails, but both traditionalism and progressivism need to be part of its trajectory. I'm somewhat more skeptical of that idea with the current court, but it was still beautiful and inspiring to hear it communicated through music.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-06-15 02:07 pm (UTC)I love this. As much as the thought of Scalia leaves me frothing at the mouth, that is a sentiment I agree with profoundly.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-06-15 04:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-06-16 01:22 pm (UTC)