OMAR
Sunday, November 5 @ 2:00 PM ***Opening night***
Tuesday, November 7 @ 7:30 PM ***New date added**
“The anticipation is palpable at the Opera House as they are gearing up to open Omar, an autobiographical account of a courageous and indomitable man: Omar Ibn Said. This work, winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Music, by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels, is a story of identity, faith and the creative human spirit.”
REMEMBER HIS NAME.
Writing is the preservation of identity in the new opera Omar from Grammy award-winning artist Rhiannon Giddens and composer Michael Abels. A true story of an indomitable faith enshrined in a two-hundred-year-old autobiography in an opera acclaimed by The New York Times as a “sweeping achievement.”
In the early 1800s, Islamic scholar Omar Ibn Said is forcibly taken from his village in West Africa and sold into slavery in Charleston, South Carolina. Attempting to flee, he is imprisoned in Fayetteville and taken to the plantation of another slaveholder, eager to convert him to Christianity. There Omar records his story in Arabic, transforming his world into an expansive canvas of text and faith, profoundly realized in Kaneza Schaal’s transcendent production.
Synopsis
The true story of a 19th century Islamic scholar from West Africa, enslaved in South Carolina, but finding identity and faith through the written word.
Full synopsis here.
NO/NO Extras: Snacks, refreshments, and a guided tour of the David Gockley and the Hume Family galleries, and a chat with DEC’s Content Curator, Cole Thomason-Redus about opera, its history, the history of the Company, as well as the production Omar exclusive to NO/NO attendees!
Pre-opera talk from resident artist and educator Michael Mohammed. The talk begins 55 minutes prior to the start of the show.