Kentucky Opera is set to bring Derrick Wang’s one-act comic opera “Scalia/Ginsburg” to Louisville April 10–17, 2026, at the Kentucky Opera Center for Cultural Health.

The production is helmed by award-winning conductor Dr. Everett McCorvey, head of the Opera Studies Program at the University of Kentucky, with direction by Audrey Chait, Artistic Programs and New Works Manager at Cincinnati Opera.

Soprano Jennifer Zetlan, making her Kentucky Opera debut, appears as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a role she has performed with Opera Delaware, Opera Grand Rapids, and Opera Carolina. She is joined by Louisville-based tenor Jesse Donner in his role debut as Antonin Scalia. Donner was last heard at Kentucky Opera in “All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914” in December 2025. The cast is rounded out by bass Ron Dukes as the Commentator in his own role debut.

Kentucky Opera will also host a free community event, “Awakenings: Understanding Scalia/Ginsburg,” on March 13 at Louisville Public Media. A panel of women in law — moderated by JoAnne Sweeny, Associate Dean of Intellectual Life and Wyatt Tarrant Combs Professor of Law at the University of Louisville — will explore how legal training informs civil discourse and de-escalation in an adversarial profession.

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