Psalm 23 from Omar
Rhiannon Giddens (b. 1977) and Michael Abels (b. 1962)

THE STORY

The opera Omar is based on the 1831 memoir A Muslim American Slave: The Life of Omar ibn Said—one of the few accounts from an enslaved African to survive in the United States, and the only one in Arabic. A Muslim scholar who was kidnapped and enslaved in 1807, Omar ibn Said spent the last five decades of his life on a plantation in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where today there is a mosque named for him. He died in 1864 as the Civil War raged around him.

Rhiannon Giddens, who wrote the libretto and composed the score with Michael Abels, described Psalm 23 in an interview as a “contemplative moment” for ibn Said: “In Act II… he has been given a Bible in Arabic…by his enslaver with the expectation of converting to Christianity. He’s looking at this Bible, and he starts to read Psalm 23, and then he starts to contemplate his whole existence. How did he get here? Why? What is the plan for him? What does Allah have in store for him? How is he trying to figure this out?” Abels says that the opera tells the story of [ibn Said’s] “spiritual journey,” including“the challenge of being asked to give up his spiritual identity as well as his freedom…"

Abels is best known for his scores for the films Get Out, Us, and Nope, all directed by the groundbreaking filmmaker Jordan Peele. Giddens, a native of Greensboro, North Carolina, is a multi-faceted singer, songwriter, and music historian known for her mastery of folk music genres—from co-founding the Carolina Chocolate Drops to succeeding Yo-Yo Ma as Artistic Director of the Silkroad music organization. Commissioned by the Spoleto Festival USA and Carolina Performing Arts, Omar had its premiere in 2022 and was awarded the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Music.

INSTRUMENTATION

Piccolo, two flutes, alto flute, two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, two horns, two trumpets, two trombones, contrabass trombone, timpani, percussion, harp, piano, strings