Omar, the opera by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels, won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for music. The opera was commissioned by the Spoleto Festival USA and premiered at the Sottile Theatre last May 27. The opera follows the story of Omar Ibn Said, a Muslim scholar who was captured in Africa in the early 1800s and sold into slavery in Charleston, S.C.
“It was a love letter to my country,” Giddens told The New York Times. “There’s so much to hate about it, but what I love about it is that ability that people have to come together and make some new amazing thing. American music is a spectrum.”
The Pulitzer Prize committee called the opera “an innovative and compelling opera about enslaved people brought to North America from Muslim countries; a musical work that respectfully represents African as well as African-American traditions expanding the language of the operatic form while conveying the humanity of those condemned to bondage.”
It is the first opera written by Giddens, who is best known as a Grammy-award winning roots music artist, and was later joined by Abels, a Los Angeles-based composer of concert and film music, including the scores to Jordan Peele’s Get Out, Us and Nope.
Previous CP coverage: The artists behind ‘Omar’ are perfectly in tune
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Charleston police revisit mask ordinance. Charleston Police Captain Jason Bruder said full face coverings like ski masks or Halloween masks are becoming more popular and is revisiting the city’s mask ordinance that was passed in the 1970s. Bruder added that n95 or surgical type of masks would be appropriate, but anyone obscuring their full face could expect consequences.
Pryor kicks off North Charleston mayoral campaign. Teddie Pryor Sr. held his campaign kickoff event at the Hilton Hotel on International Boulevard Monday afternoon and said if he is elected, he plans to build a senior center, expand affordable housing and tackle crime.
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New website links Charleston health care students and families needing care. Careyaya.org, a start-up launched in 2022 in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina through universities and students, has branched out to the University of South Carolina in Columbia and has just added College of Charleston to serve families in the Lowcountry.
- To get dozens of South Carolina news stories every business day, contact the folks at SC Clips.
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