The debut of 'Omar,' a thoroughly American opera

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The man on whom the opera is based, Omar Ibn Said, was a Muslim enslaved in Charleston, like 40% of other Africans who were forced into North America. Said then spent five decades on a plantation in Fayetteville, N.C., where he wrote his life's story.

"The way I understand this, and the way several other scholars understand this," Rashid explains,"is that this is Omar talking about being enslaved, recognizing that it is other human beings playing at power, playing at having sovereignty, playing at having authority over other human beings. And he is saying, 'No, you don't actually know what power is, you don't know what sovereignty is, you don't know where my allegiance is.

The creative team cleverly interpreted those interweavings of language and belief on the opera stage. Said's manuscripts in both Arabic and English are projected onstage; the opera's characters literally wear various languages on their clothing.

 

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