Mozart’s Così fan tutte may be one of the most polarizing of operas to stage in our time. Relationships are mired by gender powerplays as women are tested and ridiculed by men. As a director tackling this opera for the third time here in my hometown of Pittsburgh, I am inspired by a conversation with Ruth Bader Ginsburg before my production of Rigoletto at Wolf Trap Opera just outside of Washington, DC, in 2018. An avid opera fan, the Justice told me that she didn’t like Così.
Manich with Ruth Bader Ginsburg
As I arrived to dinner, I saw a glass of white wine neatly held by a pair of crocheted black-gloved delicate hands. Ginsburg seemed so small and yet her strong presence was undeniable. She was surrounded by her guests, security detail, and some board members.
She was looking straight at me, setting the stage for avoiding small talk and tackling the tough issues at hand. “What should I be looking for in this particular production?” She questioned me on the point I made about the psychology of the curse, and, as I was shaking, I emphasized my approach to the story which reflected Greek tragedy: does fate determine our future, or do we hasten our downfall with our decisions?
Her gray blue eyes merely looked from me down to the floor and I couldn’t tell if it was out of approval or disappointment, a theme that would be a through-line for the next hour.
After a brief lull, those eyes once again looked at me. “How are you handling the fact that the Duke violates her and yet she loves him?” Luckily, I was ready for this one. Wait… this was Ruth Bader Ginsburg, for the love of Zeus! I was about to defend my feminist perspective of Verdi’s iconic work with the Queen of Feminism herself?! So I testified. Ginsburg pressed, “You’ve given me the psychological reasons for her actions, but how are you going to show that?” I continued my defense with evidence.
The announcement for dinner interrupted us. I welcomed continuing the conversation, not realizing that we were assigned to the same table next to one another.
It took a few extra minutes for me to get a plate. When it finally came, the gray blue eyes to my left surveyed the situation. “Why is yours different?” “I’m gluten free,” I replied, feeling both unashamed and like a complete cliché of my generation. Those eyes once again did that approval/disappointment thing as they returned to her plate. I wanted to defend my allergy, but what would be the point doing so with a Supreme Court Justice? She justified gluten just fine.
Her first experience at the opera was in her hometown of Brooklyn at age 11. She smiled and said, “It’s not one that you would think.” La Gioconda, a rarity. She laughed a little.
She spoke of the African American conductor of that production, Dean Dixon, who had never been called “maestro,” a respectful term that any white conductor could expect to receive. He went on to have a long career in Europe and, in the late sixties, returned to the United States. The Justice related her microcosmic experience of him to a macrocosmic statement, “I use him as a prime example of how much this country changed in that period of time.”
As we discussed my own journey, she described the first opera to which she took her daughter: “I don’t like Così fan tutte.” That was no surprise. I struggled the first time I was asked to direct it, but I found my way. I explained my approach with the misogynist bet blowing up in the men’s face as the women make their choice in a new partner. The women come out of it liberated and the men get a taste of their own medicine. Ginsburg’s eyes didn’t leave her plate: approval/disappointment?
As I reflect upon my experience with her that night in light of her recent passing, directing Così fan tutte will echo her final words to me as dessert arrived followed by coffee: she took regular (she didn’t sleep, right?). I thanked her for the privilege of sitting with her for the past hour and for being an inspiration to all women. “I was born at the right time. I was born at a time when no one was listening to women.”
Since no one was listening in Mozart’s time either, RBG’s dislike of Così has inspired me to reexamine our antiquated responses to the work with a fresh approach by tackling the gender politics, questioning precedents, and, above all, listening to the women.