Gabriel’s Daughter the Life and Legacy of Clara Brown tells the true story of an African American pioneer by integrating the perspective of a world-premiere American opera about her life.  Newly freed from enslavement, Clara walked along-side a wagon-train as a laundress and cook from Kentucky to the gold mines of Colorado. However, Clara was seeking a treasure beyond gold, she longed to find her only surviving daughter Eliza Jane, sold away from her at an auction.

An award-winning ensemble helps recount Clara’s journey, as the film travels from a New Jersey recording studio, with opera highlight performances, to historic Colorado locations where Clara earned great wealth and was inducted into the Colorado Pioneer Society.  The storytelling is enhanced with candid interviews from the cast who, in examining Clara’s life, grapple with past and present societal interconnections.