Composers Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels join SFCV’s Victoria Looseleaf for an hour-long conversation about their new opera, Omar.
“O Sheikh Hunter, I cannot write my life because I have forgotten much of my own language, as well as of the Arabic. Do not be hard upon me, my brother. — To God let many thanks be paid for his great mercy and goodness.”
The New York Times called Omar “a sweeping achievement” after its May premiere this year. The opera, based on a slave narrative acquired in 2019 by the Library of Congress and published online, is written and composed by MacArthur “Genius Grant”-winner Rhiannon Giddens and co-composed by Michael Abels, most famous for movie scores to hits like Get Out and Us. Now the show comes to LA Opera (and is also scheduled for San Francisco Opera in the 2023–2024 season).
Together, the opera’s creators will discuss their journey as they tried to peel back layers of time to imagine the reality of the narrative’s author, Omar ibn Said, a Muslim scholar adjusting to life in slavery in a new land.
We’ll talk about how the opera deals with the tricky narrative, in which artifice and disguise play as large a role as autobiographical telling: How did they interpret this testimony? How did they find the music for it? We’ll talk about the theme of how Omar held on to his culture and religion in the circumstances of enslavement. We’ll ask what it was like for Giddens to write her first opera and what she learned: How did the two composers work together on the piece? And of course, we’ll take time to answer your questions as well.
Taking place on the heels of the work’s West Coast premiere, this will be an enlivening, enlightening discussion about an opera that is truly one of a kind. Make your reservation now and bring your curiosity with you.