SFO: Islam Comes to the United States

Omar ibn Said was an Islamic scholar who had the misfortune of living in Senegal during the first half of the nineteenth century, when he became one of many Africans to be packed into an American ship with the density of a sardine tin. The ship transported him and his fellow Africans through the Middle Passage, ending up in South Carolina where they were all auctioned off as slaves. What may be most remarkable is that Said kept to his faith surrounded entirely by a population (owners as well as slaves) that had no idea that there was more to religion than the Old and New Testaments.

Is this the stuff of opera? Rhiannon Giddens seemed to think it was and wrote a libretto about Said’s life. She then partnered with Michael Abels to compose the score for that libretto supported by a co-commission shared by Spoleto Festival USA, Carolina Performing Arts, San Francisco Opera (SFO), Los Angeles Opera, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The result was Omar, given its world premiere at the Spoleto Festival USA in 2022 and its West Coast premiere with the Los Angeles Opera the following October.

Yesterday afternoon, Omar was given its first performance by SFO. (There will be five more performances at 7:30 p.m. on November 7, 11, 15, 17, and 21.) The result was a vast spectacle for eyes, ears, and all that grey matter that processes the stimuli. Just about everyone responsible for the staging was making their SFO debut. These included Director Kaneza Schall, working with Christopher Myers, who conceived the entire production design. He, in turn, worked with set designer Amy Rubin, costume designers April M. Hickman and Micheline Russell-Brown, lighting designer Pablo Santiago, and projection designer Joshua Higgason. Kiara Benn provided the choreography for the dance scenes. The conductor for this production was John Kennedy, also making his SFO debut; and the full force of the SFO orchestra was supplemented by Victor Avdienko and Raymond Froehlich augmenting the percussion resources. On a more personal note, this was the first time I was clearly aware of the cor anglais performance by Liam Bosset.

James McCorkle in the title role of Omar in a setting of Arabic texts (photograph by Cory Weaver, courtesy of SFO)

As might be expected, the cast was a large one based on the wide variety of individuals that Said encountered during his life journey. His role was sung by tenor Jamez McCorkle, another SFO debut. The other members of his family are his mother Fatima (mezzo Taylor Raven) and his brother Abdul (baritone Norman Garrett, yet another SFO debut). However, the most interesting of the American roles is that of Owen (baritone Daniel Okulitch). While he purchases Omar as his slave, Owen is the one white person to acknowledge Omar’s intellect; and one of the most interesting episodes involves this Christian master trying make sense of his slave’s faith (and vice versa).

As one might imagine, there is a fair amount of complexity in Giddens’ libretto. Nevertheless, Schaal’s staging both facilitates and encourages the audience to follow the many characters through the encounters of their trajectories and their post hoc reflections on those encounters. There is no questioning the cerebral qualities of this opera, but the current SFO performance could not do a better job of negotiating those qualities without intimidating the audience!