Rhiannon Giddens Details Tremendous 2022 With World Premiere Of Omar Opera & Debut Tour of Lucy Negro Redux Ballet

Rhiannon Giddens has detailed a tremendous 2022, including the long-awaited world premiere of her opera, Omar, and the very first tour of the Lucy Negro Redux ballet that she composed the score for. Giddens will also make her publishing debut next fall, in a previously announced 4-book deal with Candlewick Press and other key appearances include Stagecoach next May. She released a widely celebrated new album They’re Calling Me Home this spring on Nonesuch and will perform select concerts in November in support of the new album, beginning this Friday.  

The world premiere of Omar, a new opera composed by Giddens, will debut at Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, SC on May 27. Other major opera companies will perform it as well, including LA Opera in the fall of 2022 as well as upcoming presentations with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Boston Lyric Opera, San Francisco Opera and Carolina Performing Arts - which is a co-commissioner of the work. Omar is based on the life and autobiography of enslaved Muslim American Omar Ibn Said, forcefully brought to Charleston, S.C. from Africa in 1807. Read more about Omar in these pieces in the NY Times and Garden & Gun. Omar was set to debut at Spoleto in 2020 but was postponed that year and again in 2021 due to the pandemic. Rhiannon worked on the score with composer Michael Abels (Jordan Peele's Get Out and Usfilms).

Giddens will also embark on a tour with her musical partner Francesco Turrisi this spring to perform on stage with the Lucy Negro Redux ballet, which Giddens composed the score for. Lucy Negro Redux, a production of the Nashville Ballet, has been hailed as “a seismic shift in dance” by the Nashville Scene and “the kind of miracle Nashville has never seen before” by the NY Times when it premiered in spring of 2019. The ballet is based on a book of poetry by Nashville writer Caroline Randall Williams that explores a character referred to as the "Dark Lady" in Shakespeare's sonnets. More info here: https://www.nashvilleballet.com/lucy-negro-redux/   

The ballet will be performed in Nashville as well as four other U.S. cities between March and April. https://www.nashvilleballet.com/lucy-negro-redux-2022 

It was also recently announced that Carolina Performing Arts has named Giddens to Southern Futures, a three-year research residency beginning in spring 2022. Giddens will focus on discovering and sharing cultural artifacts and local histories that challenge entrenched narratives and monolithic thinking on topics central to Southern Futures.

Her latest release - They’re Calling Me Home (Nonesuch) - was celebrated widely and led to interviews with NPR Music, NPR’s Here & Now, the Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Object of Sound with Hanif Aburraqiband beyond. Giddens has been featured in several pieces in the New York Times over the past 6 months that spotlight not only the new album but also the Aria Code podcast she hosts in partnership with WNYC and the Metropolitan Opera. Other recent live performance highlights include her debut at the Ojai Festival in California this past September. She also performed at the Kennedy Center Honors (in tribute to Joan Baez), and appeared at the CMT Awards to pay tribute to the pioneering country artist Linda Martell.  

In July Giddens shared an audio documentary that explores her remarkable life and the music that shaped her in this Audible Original Balance To Bridges episode. 

Omar performances:

May 27 to June 12, 2022 - Charleston, SC - Spoleto Festival USA

Fall 2022 - Los Angeles, CA - LA Opera 

To be announced: Carolina Performing Arts Presents Omar

To be announced: Boston Lyric Opera

To be announced: Lyric Opera Chicago 

To be announced: San Francisco Opera

Lucy Negro Redux dates:

March 18 – Nashville, TN – Tennessee Performing Arts Center (Lucy Negro Redux)

March 19 – Nashville, TN – Tennessee Performing Arts Center (Lucy Negro Redux)

March 20 – Nashville, TN – Tennessee Performing Arts Center 

March 25 – Nashville, TN – Tennessee Performing Arts Center 

March 26 – Nashville, TN – Tennessee Performing Arts Center 

March 29 – Denver, CO – June Swaner Gates Concert Hall

March 30 – Denver, CO – June Swaner Gates Concert Hall

April 3 – Santa Fe, NM – Lensic Performing Arts Center

April 8 – Kansas City, MO – Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

April 23 – Norfolk, VA – Chrysler Hall

2021-22 Tour Dates:

November 5 – Poughkeepsie, NY – Bardavon

November 6 - Potsdam, NY - Helen Hosmer Concert Hall

November 8 – Ann Arbor, MI – Michigan Theater

November 9 – Stoughton, WI – Stoughton Opera House

November 10 – Chicago, IL – Old Town School of Folk Music

November 11 - Lexington, KY - Mitchell Fine Arts Center

November 19-21 - Boston, MA - Loeb Drama Center / Phoenix Rising with Silkroad Ensemble

January 21 - Greensboro, NC - Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts / Greensboro Opera Presents Porgy and Bess

January 23 - Greensboro, NC - Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts / Greensboro Opera Presents Porgy and Bess

April 28 - Greencastle, IN - Kresge Auditorium

May 1 - Indio, CA - Stagecoach

May 21 - Richmond, VA - The Richmond Forum