Theatrical Adaptation: Omar Ibn Said's 1831 Autobiography
A true story of defiance and perseverance in the midst of displacement, the Pulitzer-winning show, Omar, is based on the 1831 autobiography of Fula Islamic scholar Omar Ibn Said, who was forced into slavery in 1807.
We sailed in the big Sea for a month and a half until we came to a place called Charleston [South Carolina]. And in a Christian language, they sold me. A weak, small, evil man called Johnson, an infidel ( Kafir ) who did not fear Allah at all, bought me.
I am a small man who cannot do hard work; I escape[d], from the hands of Johnson after a month, and walked to a place called Faydel. (p.63)
The original manuscript in Arabic was translated by Dr. Ala Alryyes in A Muslim American Slave: The Life of Omar Ibn Said, complete with fascimiles of the manuscript.
Incorporating the ‘sounds and melodies of Americana, Arabic, and West African folk music’, the score is a collaboration between Rhiannon Giddens (MacArthur Grant awardee) and Michael Abels (the Oscar-nominated film Get Out).
While the show has been sold out, those wishing to see the performance in Fall 2023 may sign up to receive updates on the recording broadcast on the Boston Lyric Opera official website here.
“This record of Said’s remarkable life and Muslim faith reveals a refusal to be defined or erased by his captors.”
