Set Designer

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.

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Omar

Lyric Opera House

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.

Highways and Valleys – Two American Love Stories

Detroit Opera House

Shakespeare’s iconic tragedy becomes a psychological battleground examining the catastrophic consequences of war. Seduced by ambition, a power-hungry couple claw their way to the throne—only to find their aspirations twisted into madness. Giuseppe Verdi’s career-defining music underscores their ruthless ascent. This is opera at its most thrilling: a blazing struggle with fate’s cruel grip.

Macbeth

Emerson College

Smiling snowmen, snow angels, and warm bubble baths: experience the magic of Ezra Jack Keats’ beloved children’s book come to life on the opera stage. The Snowy Day follows the adventures of young Peter as he explores his neighborhood on a snowy day, making new friends and encountering unexpected wonders along the way. 

The Snowy Day

Portland'5 Centers for the Arts

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.

War Memorial Opera House

Tennessee Williams’ Orpheus Descending tells the story of the passion of two outcasts—Lady Torrance, a storekeeper’s wife and daughter of a murdered Sicilian bootlegger and Val, a wandering guitar player—and their attempt to escape from a Southern Hell.

Set in a small town dry-goods store in the Deep South, Orpheus Descending is a toxic brew of racist violence, bigotry, misogyny, sexual passion and longing for liberation.

Orpheus Descending

Polonsky Shakespeare Center

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.

Los Angeles Music Center

Forty years after Aida opened the newly constructed Wortham Theater Center, Verdi’s monumental masterwork returns to HGO in a visionary new production from director Kaneza Schaal. Inspired by a diverse array of cultures and art forms from across the globe, this staging blooms with colors, flowers, and dance to share the opera’s story of love, betrayal, and sacrifice, set to an iconic score that represents the pinnacle of the Italian Romantic style. Radiant soprano Ailyn Pérez returns to HGO as enslaved Ethiopian woman Aida, with leading tenors Jonathan Tetelman and Adam Smith sharing the role of her love, Egyptian military commander Radames; Grammy Award-winning baritone Lucas Meachem in his role debut as Aida’s father, Amonasro; and powerful mezzo-soprano Raehann Bryce-Davis as the revenge-bent Amneris. The celebrated Milanese conductor Michele Gamba makes his company debut at the podium.

Aida

Wortham Theater Center

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).

Set Designer

Amy Rubin

Events

Upcoming events

Jan 22 - Feb 7, 2027

Aida · Houston Grand Opera

17 - 25 Apr, 2027

Aida · Opera Philadelphia

Past events

23 - 28 Oct, 2026

Omar · Lyric Opera of Chicago

Dec 7, 2025

Highways and Valleys – Two American Love Stories · Detroit Opera

About

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