Artistic director Monique Veaute at the Spoleto USA Festival in Charleston

Institutional trip for director Monique Veaute, who last weekend was a guest of the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, on the occasion of its inauguration. The trip, the result of the newfound dialogue between the two institutions, and the director's personal relationship with new general director Mena Mark Hanna, in fact opens a new phase of collaboration between the two festivals founded from Gian Carlo Menotti and new scenarios for future developments. Monique Veaute was able to attend the world premiere of the new production ofopera Omar. L'opera, set to music by Grammy Award winner Rhiannon Giddens and composer Michael Abels, is based on the autobiography (written in 1831) of Omar Ibn Said, a Muslim scholar forced to to leave West Africa to aboard a ship for Charleston, where he was sold and enslaved. The debut was sealed from a great success: the narrative highlights Said's faith and his resilience to being defined or erased by his enslavers, ensuring that his spirit continues to to live on.