On November 19, on its streamed “Live with Carnegie Hall” series, Carnegie presented “Remembering Ruth Bader Ginsburg,” a most moving, breathtaking tribute, stressing the icon, her legacy, and her love of opera, with mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard as host.
The program began with a July 21, 1993 C-Span clip from then nominee Ginsburg’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee and continued with mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, assisted by pianist Laura Ward, singing Gene Scheer’s “American Anthem” (“America, America, I give my best to you) at the September 25, 2020 memorial for Ginsburg at the Capitol, where she was lying in state. Graves later spoke of her friendship with Ginsburg, saying, of her work on behalf of women, that she “fought for all of us with her last breath.”
Leonard interviewed RBG’s children Jane and Jim Ginsburg about the Justice’s connection to opera. Her favorite operas were Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” and “Le Nozze di Figaro” and her favorite singer of their title roles was Cesare Siepi. The first opera she took her daughter Jane to was Mozart’s “Così fan tutte” at the old Metropolitan Opera House. Son Jim started with Gilbert & Sullivan, performed by the Light Opera of Manhattan, and proceeded to a Met “Aida.” RBG’s other favorite singers were Jussi Bjoerling, George London, Zinka Milanov, Renata Tebaldi, and Leontyne Price. Price’s recordings of Giacomo Puccini’s “Vissi d’arte,” from “Tosca,” and “Sogno di Doretta,” from “La Rondine,” were played at her funeral and an “Ed Sullivan Show” clip of Price’s “Vissi d’arte” was shown here. The day RBG headed out to try her first case, Maria Callas entered the elevator that she was on, which she considered a good omen.
Ginsburg’s family found a love letter to her from Martin Ginsberg, RBG’s husband of 56 years, after he died, in his Johns Hopkins Hospital room. Composer Stacy Garrop set it to music and RBG’s daughter-in-law, soprano Patrice Michaels, assisted by pianist Kuang-Hao Huang, moved us to tears singing “Dearest Ruth.”
We saw a clip of RBG in the speaking role of the Duchess of Krakenthorp in the Washington National Opera’s “La Fille du Régiment,” to Deborah Nansteel’s Marquise de Berkenfield, and a photo of the Justice with her colleague, personal friend, and frequent political opponent Antonin Scalia as supernumeraries in the company’s “Ariadne auf Naxos.” There was also a scene from Derrick Wang’s opera “Scalia/Ginsburg.”
Soprano Renée Fleming spoke about RBG presiding as wedding officiant over “same-sex unions.” Joyce DiDonato asked Ginsburg, if she were an opera diva, what would be her role, and her reply was the Marschallin in “Der Rosenkavalier,” who comes to terms with aging and with her position in life as an older woman We were then treated to clippings of Fleming, in the climactic trio from “Rosenkavalier,” and DiDonato singing a low-lying, fervent a cappella “America the Beautiful,” with, significantly, the verse about heroes, in Ginsburg’s memory.
The salute closed with Leonard, assisted by pianist John Arida, singing Stephen Sondheim’s “No One Is Alone,” from “Into the Woods,” seamlessly.