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Fall 2023

Omar

By Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels

Overview

Dates

November 5-21

Composers

Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels

Librettist

Rhiannon Giddens

Price

Starting at $26

Run Time

2 hours, 50 minutes including one intermission

Language

English

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.

Pre-Opera Talk Digital Program Book Download

See a Performance

Pre-Opera Talks
Join us 55 minutes before every performance for an engaging 20-minute overview of the opera.  Click on the below Learn More button for more information.

PRE-OPERA TALKS


Post-Show Talk-Backs
On November 7, 11, 15, 17 and 21, we invite audiences to join us in the Lower Level Restaurant and Bar for a post-opera Talk-Back to further explore and process the story of enslaved Islamic scholar, Omar Ibn Said. Audience members will hear firsthand the experiences of cast members and the creative teams behind this Pulitzer Prize-winning work. 
Panelists:

OperaVision, HD video projection screens featured in the Balcony level for the first three performances.

For latest ticket availability please call the Box Office at (415) 864-3330

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.


Read Complete Synopsis

* San Francisco Opera Debut

PERFORMANCES
November 5, 7, 11, 15, 17, 21, 2023

Omar is co-commissioned by Spoleto Festival USA, Carolina Performing Arts, San Francisco Opera, LA Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Boston Lyric Opera, and Detroit Opera

Co-production by San Francisco Opera, LA Opera, and Lyric Opera of Chicago

Originally co-produced by Spoleto Festival USA and Carolina Performing Arts at The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Made Possible By

This production is made possible, in part, by Marcia Barinaga & Corey Goodman; Bob Ellis; Louise Gund; and Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem

This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
National Endowment for the Arts logo