Stage Director

Journey into the soul of America with Detroit Opera’s inspiring double-bill. In Highway 1, USA, William Grant Still, the “Dean of African American composers,” paints a portrait of a family navigating the promises and pressures of the American Dream. It is paired with Kurt Weill’s folk-inspired Down in the Valley, a newly staged production and premiere about love and sacrifice.

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Highways and Valleys – Two American Love Stories

Detroit Opera House

The Messenger follows a community of seekers whose leader has gone missing. They have always lived in harmony with the land, their ancestry, and beliefs. What will they do in his absence? In this fusion of classical, jazz and new music, the community sets out to answer this very question.

The Messenger

National Sawdust

The power of art triumphs over historical neglect and censorship in two 20th-century gems. First up is a rare staging of Highway 1, USA by William Grant Still, a trailblazing Jim Crow-era composer hailed as “the Dean of African-American Composers.” Norman Garrett and Nicole Heaston star as a hardworking couple determined to build a better life, who discover that their years of sacrifices have been misguided. Chaz'men Williams-Ali portrays the beneficiary of their support, who squanders the opportunities granted to him. This new production is staged by visionary director Kaneza Schaal, who helmed the stunning 2022 production of Omar.

Next, Rodrick Dixon performs the title role opposite audience favorites Erica Petrocelli and Kristinn Sigmundsson in The Dwarf, a heartbreaking tale of one-sided love in an opulent Spanish court. Last presented here in 2008 to critical acclaim, Oscar Wilde’s fable is brought to life through a lush and romantic score by Alexander Zemlinsky, whose career was cut short by the rise of the Nazi regime.

Highway 1, USA / The Dwarf

Los Angeles Music Center

Writing is the preservation of identity in the new opera Omar from Grammy award-winning artist Rhiannon Giddens and composer Michael Abels. A true story of an indomitable faith enshrined in a two-hundred-year-old autobiography in an opera acclaimed by The New York Times as a “sweeping achievement.”
In the early 1800s, Islamic scholar Omar Ibn Said is forcibly taken from his village in West Africa and sold into slavery in Charleston, South Carolina. Attempting to flee, he is imprisoned in Fayetteville and taken to the plantation of another slaveholder, eager to convert him to Christianity. There Omar records his story in Arabic, transforming his world into an expansive canvas of text and faith, profoundly realized in Kaneza Schaal’s transcendent production.

Omar

War Memorial Opera House

In 1807, a 37-year-old scholar living in West Africa was captured and forced aboard a slave ship bound for Charleston, South Carolina. Omar Ibn Said's life and Muslim faith are remembered and retold in this inspirational West Coast premiere inspired by his remarkable 1831 autobiography (the only known surviving American slave narrative written in Arabic).
Set in the shifting darkness of memory and imagination, Omar follows his compelling journey from a peaceful life in his homeland to enslavement in a violent, foreign world. Lost in the wilderness of his thoughts and his stolen life, he's haunted by memories of his family and the people he encounters along the way. Through it all, he somehow remains true to himself and his faith, against all odds. The luminous score—composed by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels—incorporates distinctive West African traditions with traditional opera instrumentation.
Tenor Jamez McCorkle makes his company debut in the title role, with bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch in a double role as two very different slave masters. Norman Garrett makes his company debut as Omar's brother, with Barry Banks as the auctioneer and Jacqueline Echols as Julie, an enslaved woman who gives Omar the key to a better life.

KLII exorcises the ghost of Belgium’s King Leopold II through a mytho-biographical performance by theater-maker Kaneza Schaal. Designed and codirected by Christopher Myers, KLII draws on Mark Twain’s King Leopold’s Soliloquy (1905), a fictional monologue written after Twain’s visit to the Congo Free State, and Patrice Lumumba’s 1960 independence speech in the Congo. Increasingly our demons are invisible—long-hidden racism and misogyny, misinformation, even the virus. How do we handle these threats, which are as central to our everyday life as they are hidden? Schaal and Myers propose an exorcism in theater, starring one of the villains of the 19th century whose actions resonate through the present day.

Kaneza Schaal: KLII

Walt Disney Concert Hall

MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient Rhiannon Giddens and celebrated co-composer Michael Abels bring their profoundly moving story of the human spirit to Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Inspired by the memoir of 19th-century Islamic scholar Omar ibn Said, this breathtaking work spins a musical narrative of Omar’s capture in West Africa, journey across the Atlantic Ocean, and enslavement in South Carolina, where he confronts his circumstances and challenges his faith through a series of indelible writings.

Lyric Opera House

For the first time in over two decades, Verdi’s monumental masterwork returns to the Academy of Music in a lush new production from director Kaneza Schaal and visual artist Christopher Myers. Drawing from histories, forms, and traditions born in places where the African diaspora collided with other peoples, this new staging explores the opera’s imagined histories, rich complexities, and cultural tensions that have granted it an enduring allure. This Aida brings the timeless story of love, betrayal, and sacrifice to life while illuminating themes of identity, power, and conflict that remain strikingly relevant today, allowing us to hear Verdi’s iconic score in a whole new way. Powerhouse soprano Tiffany Townsend makes her role debut in the title role, alongside tenor Jonathan Burton (Radamès), bass-baritone Alfred Walker (Amonasro), and mezzo-soprano Aubrey Odle (Amneris).

Stage Director

Kaneza Schaal

Events

Upcoming events

23 - 28 Oct, 2026

Omar · Lyric Opera of Chicago

17 - 25 Apr, 2027

Aida · Opera Philadelphia

Past events

Dec 7, 2025

Highways and Valleys – Two American Love Stories · Detroit Opera

Jun 19, 2025

The Messenger · National Sawdust

About

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