A ‘SUPREME’ TALENT
Justice ‘Notorious RBG’ set to make opera (?!) debut
HERE COMES the judge — in an opera.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg slips out of her robe into something befitting royalty for her onenight-only performance in the Washington National Opera’s production of Donizetti’s “The Daughter of the Regiment” on Nov. 12.
The role in this 1840s opera comes as Ginsburg has been riding a wave of rock-star celebrity with millennials. Chalk it up to her controversial feuding with Donald Trump and a spunky biography, “Notorious RBG,” plus coloring books and blogs all about her. At 83, she’s more magnetic than ever.
Just ask “Daughter of the Regiment” director Robert Longbottom. “We chose Ruth Bader Ginsburg because we wanted a Washington insider and a personality that would be fun to see on the Saturday night after the election,” he told the Daily News. “Whatever the outcome . . . hearing from Justice Ginsburg will be a tonic.”
Ginsburg, who’s been singing a new tune over her dismissive remarks about football star Colin Kaepernick’s national anthem protest, will play the Duchess of Krakenthorp, a non-trilling but often scene-stealing role in a frothy story of a girl raised by soldiers who turns out to be royalty.
The duchess schools the earthy tomboy in the art of decorum. Brooklyn-born Ginsburg’s 23 years of experience on the country’s highest court should inform that part, which has been played by the likes of Bea Arthur at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
Ginsburg is an opera buff who’s previously been on stage as a background filling supernumerary. “Daughter of the Regiment” marks her debut in a speaking role.
“The justice has been a fierce defender of women’s rights, and our heroine in the opera, without knowing it, has the makings of a true feminist,” said Longbottom. “She has to figure out how to become a woman on her own terms while still staying strong and capable of inspiring a group of men who look to her for leadership.”
Fittingly, Ginsburg is approaching the role on her own terms. That includes cuts that the director calls “judicious (pun intended). And,” he adds, “she quotes one of her Supreme Court rulings that is particularly apt to the situation.”