An archetypal Mediterranean island. Orsia and her father go fishing on the anniversary of Orsia’s mother’s death and catch a refugee boy like a fish out at sea.

Who is this boy? Where is his family? Why won’t he speak? Determined to find him a home, Orsia makes her way through a village full of closed doors. Only the pigeon keeper, an outsider from far away, responds to the boy, serving as the key that unlocks the child’s voice, which, in turn, becomes a balm for a family made brittle by loss.

A fable for now, this magic-realist tale explores the myriad ways we respond to “the other” in the face of today’s mass migrations—and celebrates the kindness of strangers, the power of human connection, and the unexpected places we find home—and family.

Duration: 80 minutes
4 principles, and children’s chorus. Orchestra of 8.

The libretto was a recipient of a 2019 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship.

Music workshop, September 2022, with the San Francisco Girl’s Chorus
Orchestration Workshop, University of Michigan, March 10, 2024

Premiere: Opera Parallèle, San Francisco March 7-9, 2025

Listen to Key Change, the Opera for All Voices podcast:

“Points Unknown: Exploring Our Relationship to Otherness Through The Pigeon Keeper”
“Music Born Out of a Modern Experience: The Pigeon Keeper Orchestral Workshop”
“Hope is the Thing with Feathers”
“Competing Interests—How Do You Workshop a New Opera?”

workshop archival video, libretto and score/music samples available on request

THE PIGEON KEEPER

a new opera

commissioned by Santa Fe Opera’s Opera for all Voices Initiative

music by David Hanlon
libretto by Stephanie Fleischmann
directed by Mary Birnbaum
conducted by Kelly Kuo