Scheherazade

An evening of programmatic drama awaits as GRAMMY® Award-winning mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor joins the Omaha Symphony in Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs. Leanna Primiani’s 1001 and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade tell musical tales of Scheherazade as she fights to stay alive.

Tugging at the heartstrings through song, GRAMMY® Award-winning mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor performs Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs, musical settings of five sonnets written by Chilean-born Pablo Neruda, one of the most influential writers of the 20th century, known chiefly for his poems about love and loss. The work was composed for Lieberson’s wife who heartbreakingly passed away right after recording these songs and whose recording was posthumously awarded a 2008 GRAMMY® for Best Classical Vocal Performance. The trials of love are echoed as Leanna Primiani explores the psyche of Scheherazade as she lives in fear, constantly postponing her own execution in 1001. Finally, a tale told through a musical masterpiece, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade showcases brilliance of orchestration, tender and heart-wrenching melodies, and a glorious vitality of spirit.