Gabriel’s Daughter is an American opera that retells the engrossing true-life story of Colorado Pioneer Clara Brown. Newly freed from enslavement, Clara takes a job as a laundress and cook to embark on a treacherous journey walking alongside a wagon train from Kentucky to the Colorado gold mines. During these travels Clara seeks a treasure more valuable than gold.  She longs to find her only surviving daughter, Eliza Jane, sold away from her at an auction. 

 

Throughout her heart-wrenching search for her child, Clara, serendipitously earns great wealth and becomes the first female and African American to be inducted into the Colorado Pioneer Society.  The opera had its world-premiere at the historic Central City Opera House in Colorado during the 2003 season.