January 13, 2005

How criminal law is like opera

I was futzing around on Google and found a quote from Hildegard Behrens, kick-ass soprano and former lawyer:



"In criminal law, you have to find out if a person is responsible or has special circumstances. If he drives and kills somebody and he's drunk, you take that into account. You go step by step in law, and that's what you do in opera, too - finding motivations, reasons, cause and effect, emotions, guilt, responsibility. The intellectual training and discipline that it takes to solve a juridical case are very good for the approaches to a role."

When I was a 3L, I took an extended road trip in the middle of the semester. I never do think about the C- in Remedies I got back then, but I can still feel the tremble from hearing La Behrens singing the "Ruhe ruhe du Gott" from Walküre that night at the Met.

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