Omar is a recent American opera based upon a remarkable, tragic, and true tale of Omar ibn Said, a wealthy Muslim scholar who was kidnapped from his home in a West African Islamic country (presently Senegal) in 1807 at the age of 37 and sold into a life of slavery in Charleston, South Carolina. There, he later escaped his harsh master and fled to North Carolina, where he was captured and sold again. This time to a planter, James Owen, who, impressed with Ibn Omar’s intelligence, erudition, and learning, tried to convert him to Christianity. His master urged him to write his memoirs, which he did, going on to write a least thirteen other works in Arabic on history and theology. But, his education and intelligence did not save him from a long, tragic life in slavery, and he died in his nineties in 1864. There is preserved a poignant photograph of him from late in life, wearing a formal suit and tie and exuding a completely dignified mien—still enslaved.
In 2019 the American folk performer and composer, Rhiannon Giddens was commissioned to compose an opera based upon Ibn Said’s life as recounted in his autobiography—originally written in Arabic. She collaborated with the composer, Michael Abels, finishing it in 2020. The work received its world première in 2022 at the Spoleto Festival USA, and was subsequently awarded the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Music. Ironically, the initial performance occurred less than a mile from the original slave market where Ibn Said was sold more than two centuries earlier.
The opera was well received and went on to successful performances in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Boston. The young composer, Giddens, is a well-known North Carolina musician, active in unusual variety of musical genres: folk, blues, traditional Southern rural styles—both Black and White—gospel, soul, jazz, bluegrass, Celtic. You name it. She was a founding member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, and has released five solo albums. A 2000 graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory, where she studied opera, she is a performer on banjo, fiddle, and a singer. She has concertized and recorded extensively, and was a 2017 MacArthur “Genius” Fellow. Michael Abel, born in 1962 and educated at the University of Southern California, composes works for orchestra, including film and television scores. Able has received numerous awards for his film music.
The overture to Omar is stylistically altogether appropriate for the life of a West African Muslim, and is a reflection of the composer’s varied interests. Consequently, the opera has stylistic references to traditional African rhythms, as well as jazz, bluegrass, spirituals, and hymns. Unusual instruments employed include traditional African drums: Kidi, Sogo, Tar, Djembe, and Ghaval. Moreover, the composers cleverly scored for some of the standard instruments of the traditional symphony orchestra in ways that imitate “exotic” instruments such as the banjo and the Kora—a 21-string West African lute. In an unusual opening for an overture, it begins with an energetic statement of the main idea by a solo viola—representing Omar and his journey–soon followed by the drums of the percussion section, laying down a hypnotic weft of distinctive African-derived rhythmic figures. The chief rhythm is one well known to world percussionists as the “malfüf,” consisting of a thump on the drum head, followed by two light, syncopated thwacks on the rim. This traditional rhythm is associated with Omar’s homeland in Senegambia. The chief melodic element throughout the work is based upon the “Kormanti” melody, which was recognized as early as the seventeenth century among Jamaican slaves. The energetic opening soon leads to a pause that features lyrical moments in the violas and alto flute. Otherwise, the string section—supported by the insistent drumming–carries the bulk of the jagged, syncopated melodic drive that reminds one as much of Middle Eastern musical culture as of African. The pungent little overture doesn’t last long, but is a perfect introduction to a novel, thoughtful opera that explores yet another of the unique stories which contribute to our nation’s complex history.
Wm. E. Runyan
©William E. Runyan 2026