FOLKSINGER’S MIDAS TOUCH WITH OPERA
The latest sensation in opera is the unorthodox “Omar,” written by the polymath folksinger Rhiannon Giddens, winner of a Pulitzer, MacArthur “genius” award and Grammy. With co-composer Michael Abels, she turned out the multicultural drama now staged at the San Francisco Opera. It is based on the true story of Omar ibn Sayyid, a 19th-century African-Arab Islamic savant and author who had been forced into slavery and shipped off to the cotton fields. The work is unique in opera annals,…