An opera based on the life of a Swiss woman who dressed as a man, converted to Islam and lived as an outcast in Algeria will be presented Saturday at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center.

“Song from the Uproar: The Lives and Deaths of Isabelle Eberhardt,” featuring a diverse all-woman cast and crew, will be staged at 2 and 7 p.m. in the center at 980 Liberty Ave., Pittsburgh.

The program also will include the premiere of “Kassia,” an ensemble by Judith Shatin, with string quartet, harp and clarinet.

The opera is the premiere production of the center’s B.U.I.L.D. residency program, which is designed to share resources and provide opportunities for emerging arts organizations and independent artists, and its artist-in-residence, DEMASKUS Theater Collective.

Born in 1877, Eberhardt lived a colorful life as an explorer and author after moving to Algeria at age 20. Her unorthodox behavior made her an object of suspicion among European settlers and the French administration there. She survived an assassination attempt, married an Algerian soldier and was killed in a flash flood at age 27.

“Song from the Uproar” is based on a 2012 chamber opera by Grammy Award-nominated composer Missy Mazzoli, in which Eberhardt’s life is recounted through a series of surreal vignettes.

The DEMASKUS production “is a newly re-imagined production,” said co-producer Amanda Van Story, who will sing the title role during the 7 p.m. performance. “We’re not trying to recreate Isabelle Eberhardt’s life, we’re taking her story, her words, and putting forward her story as if she were a Black woman in the U.S. in the 1940s.

“It works because her words are so universal, words that so many women — and quite frankly, people — can connect to.”

Performers are accompanied by a live ensemble of electric guitar, cello, viola, clarinet and flute, with the cello and viola standing in for male voices. Pittsburgh artist Alisha B. Wormsley has created projections for the production.

The music is powerful and challenging, said Zuly Inirio, who will sing the Eberhardt role at 2 p.m. Inirio, who has master’s and doctoral degrees from Louisiana State University, has sung opera both in the United States and Europe. She is associate director of the Center for Ethnic Studies Research at the University of Pittsburgh.

“It’s a challenging score, but challenging in the best ways,” Inirio said. “Once you immerse yourself in it, the musical language taps into those core feelings behind the words and the settings. Particularly in the piece ‘I Am Not Mine,’ she really starts talking about her feelings about the man she fell in love with. It’s just raw emotion. It’s like nothing I’ve ever done before.”

Creating opportunities

The project came about as a response to Van Story’s experiences as a Black woman in the opera world. She has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in classical vocal performance from Howard University and has performed in the eastern United States, Europe and Anguilla.

“I noticed patterns not unique to Pittsburgh but endemic to the world of opera and what people call the classic arts in general,” she said. “Opera is not just an art form that I love dearly and clearly, it’s also an institution. It has institutionalized racism and patriarchy, as many institutions have.

“I’m tired of running that race. I knew I was talented and I knew I was not the only one,” she said. “As many of my mentors told me, often Black people in America and elsewhere have to create their own opportunities.

“My hope is that, in doing this, more Black women will be able to also step into this role and expand the opportunities in opera for people of color and other minoritzed identities.”

A Black woman singing the role of a Swiss woman is “kind of a big deal,” Van Story said, but true to Mazzoli’s intentions in having the opera presented as the producers saw fit.

“It’s so significant that there are Black women performing this role because opera is so institutionalized,” she said.”People really hold tight to tradition. When the tradition is, unfortunately, steeped in whiteness and maleness, there’s not much room to expand who’s telling the story or who’s on the stage. In reality, art in so many ways is much more fluid and open.”

The role resonates with Inirio as an Afro-Latina whose parents emigrated from the Dominican Republic in the 1970s.

“I really relate to Isabelle’s migration and persistence throughout her story because of what my parents experienced and what I experienced with them, and the resiliency behind that,” Inirio said. “Their sacrifices made that possible for me to have the opportunity to step on a stage this weekend and do something so far out there beyond their wildest dreams.”

“If you can stage ‘Don Giovanni’ in the 1980s with motorcycles and leather jackets, why can’t you have Black people, Latinos, LatinX people, Asians, Pacific Islander people, people who are known to be disabled, queer representation?” Van Story said. “The fact is that you can, you just have to be intentional about it.”

By presenting a more diverse slate of performers, Van Story said, the goal also is to make opera attractive and accessible to a more diverse audience.

B.U.I.L.D. stands for “build, utilize, inform, lead and develop,” said Janis Burley Wilson, president/CEO of the August Wilson Center. “What that means is building capacity; utilizing our resources in really efficient ways; informing, meaning providing professional development opportunities for artists; being leaders in this kind of model to determine if it works; and developing organizations.

“The B.U.I.L.D. residency program offers diversity to our program, and that’s how we benefit,” she said. “It helps to build and strengthen the local arts community, specifically African American or Black-led organizations, helping them to build capacity and to hone in on quality and excellence in their work.”

Tickets for “Song from the Uproar” are $32.25. For information, call 412-339-1011 or visit awaacc.org.