Reflections on the Omar Panel Discussion

         I found the panel discussion on Omar with Rhiannon Giddens very interesting for a number of reasons, the biggest one being the process through which the idea of an opera came to be and how Rhiannon went about making sure to stick to Omar's words. Listening to a discussion around opera and adaptations of stories into opera was completely new for me, as I am not at all familiar with opera and its style of music. I had no idea that this opera has been in the making for around three years now, and includes instruments such as the banjo, which usually is not in opera. Additionally, I found it very interesting how so much emotion can be conveyed through opera singing, evident in the clip that was shown of a man singing a clip from the opera (I forgot his name, but I could see that he was really giving 100% of his emotion while expressing the emotions of people forced into slavery). I also found it interesting how Rhiannon was not fully finished with her education in opera, but had stopped at a point that allowed her to switch between an opera voice and voice to suit other kinds of music such as folk. A point that was very intriguing for me was how Rhiannon kept mentioning that whenever she felt she was straying a bit from Omar's narrative, she "kept going back to his words". I was astonished that the she found the voice of Omar and was able to present it to a diverse audience through opera.