OMAR to Make Chicago Premiere at Lyric Opera

Omar, the Pulitzer Prize–winning opera by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels, receives its long-awaited Chicago premiere at Lyric Opera of Chicago this week — a landmark work Lyric has helped shape as a co-commissioner since its inception.

Omar draws its power from an extraordinary source: the memoirs of West African Islamic scholar Omar ibn Said, one of the only firsthand accounts of American slavery ever written in Arabic. The opera fuses hymns, spirituals, gospel, and bluegrass with West African percussion into a sound at once ancient and utterly alive.

Issachah Savage stars in the title role, alongside Kearstin Piper Brown, Zoie Reams, Kyle Ketelsen, and Briana Hunter. Conductor Kazem Abdullah returns to lead the Lyric Opera Orchestra, and director Kaneza Schaal brings a bold visual imagination to her Lyric debut.

Read the digital program book of Omar before the performance.

Performance dates for Omar are October 23 at 7:00 p.m.; October 25 at 2:00 p.m.; and October 28 at 7:00 p.m. All performances take place at the Lyric Opera House, 20 North Wacker Drive, Chicago.

Omar is performed in English, with easy-to-follow projected English titles above the stage. A total running time of 2 hours and 40 minutes, including one intermission.

American Sign Language interpretation, audio description, a guided touch tour of the set, and SoundShirts will be available at the October 25 performance. Braille and large-print programs, high-powered opera glasses, assistive listening devices, and booster seats are available from the theater's Steiner Parquet coat checks at all performances; new Auracast assistive listening technology is also available at all performances. For more information on these and other accessibility services, visit lyricopera.org/accessibility.