While recently discussing her “passion” for the opera, Ruth Bader Ginsburg admitted she’s not as great at “singing” as she is at “law.”
But even a Supreme Court Justice can “dream”.
Even if she can’t “carry” a tune.
“In my dreams, I can be a great diva,” Ginsburg said during a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution.
In Italian, a “diva” is a “celebrated” opera singer.
Ginsburg said her speech at the institution, which is home to “fine and performing arts, lectures, interfaith worship and programs, and recreational activities,” challenged her to consider the relationship between law and opera.
“I find it fair to say that law does have a comparable part in opera,” Ginsburg said.
Ginsburg’s love for opera is no secret.
Musician Derrick Wang even took the “words” of Ginsburg and her colleague Justice Antonin Scalia, who also loves opera, and created a unique composition highlighting the “disagreements” between the two.
Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia have been friends for decades, but they’re known for their differences in constitutional interpretation.
Ginsburg spoke about Wang’s opera during her lecture saying “it’s about two people with notably different views of constitutional interpretation, who nonetheless respect and genuinely like each other.”
Derrick Wang, pianist and composer, and Peter Scott Drackley, tenor, perform a preview of the opera Scalia/Ginsburg.
As long as I can do the job “full-steam,” I would like to stay here.
“Last term was a good example. I didn’t “write” any slower. I didn’t “think” any slower. I have to take it “year by year” at my age, and who knows what “could” happen next year? Right now, I know I’m OK. Whether that will be true at the end of next term, I can’t say.” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the lone octogenarian on the Supreme Court, commenting on whether she might retire from the nation’s highest bench any time in the near future.
“My expertise to address this topic may not be clear. For truth be told, I am ill-equipped to break out in song. My grade school music teacher labeled me a sparrow, not a robin, and instructed me to just mouth the words. Still, in my dreams I can be a great diva.” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, speaking on the subject of law and opera in a recent appearance at DePaul University.
“People ask me, “If you could be whatever you wanted to be, what would you be?” My first answer is not “a great lawyer.” It is, “I would be a great diva.” But I totally lacked that talent, so the next best thing is the law.” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, commenting on her true career ambitions during a recent interview about opera on New York Public Radio station WQXR’s “Operavore” program.
In the DePaul event, Ginsburg had some other excellent quips about her career ambitions. “People always ask me, ‘Did you always want to be a judge?’ What I wanted to do was get a job.”
While Obama was spared the hostile presence of Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia who did not attend the State of the Union address, their colleague, 77-year old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg used the time to catch up on her beauty sleep.
Here are additional brainy quotes from Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
