Large-Scale Compositions
Omar
Co-commissioned by LA Opera, Spoleto Festival USA, and Carolina Performing Arts, Omar premiered at the 2022 Spoleto Festival USA and has since been performed at LA Opera, Carolina Performing Arts, Boston Lyric Opera and San Francisco Opera.
“Only a musician like Giddens could have created “Omar,” for which she wrote the libretto and composed in recorded drafts — she sang and accompanied herself — that were then orchestrated by Abels, with an ear for subtle connections and propulsive drama. Their score, nimbly handled by the conductor John Kennedy and the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra, is a melting pot inspired by bluegrass, hymns, spirituals and more, with nods to traditions from Africa and Islam. It’s an unforced ideal of American sound: expansive and ever-changing.”
A ballet with original music from Rhiannon Giddens & Francesco Turrisi, based on a book of poetry, Lucy Negro Redux, by Caroline Randall Williams that reads Shakespeare’s “dark lady” sonnets as written to a black woman. Commissioned by Nashville Ballet, it premiered in 2019 and was recorded for PBS’s Great Performances in 2022, retitled Black Lucy & the Bard.
Black Lucy & The Bard
