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
co-commissioners Opera Omaha & Opera on the Avalon

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

PRESS

Touching, timely chamber opera… Structured as a contemporary fable by the librettist Stephanie Fleischmann and with a tender, wonderstruck score by David Hanlon, The Pigeon Keeper marries the issue of mass migration to an intimate portrayal of a grief-struck father and daughter.
—Opera News/Opera Magazine

Composer David Hanlon and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann have crafted a new opera that offers hope and healing, albeit with wistful sadness and gentle reminders of how trauma undoes people…. Hanlon…has a keen ear for melody and orchestration. “The Pigeon Keeper” is marvelously singable, and from an orchestra of just eight musicians…he conjures a panoply of appealing colors and textures….Fleischmann’s excellent libretto paces the action beautifully, precisely delineating the characters.
— SF Chronicle/Datebook

A heartfelt and original fairy-tale plot, highly listenable and inventive music, strong singing from the four cast members and the best new libretto I have experienced in years combined to make the world premiere of The Pigeon Keeper a winner….Fleischmann’s libretto, poetic yet never artsy, matches well with Hanlon’s often colorful music, and goes beyond plain storytelling to explore our human relationship to nature…. Underlined by the music’s caressing sound inching toward an epiphany, it is a moist-eyed ending to a highly accessible, well-wrought opera.
— Seen & Heard International

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

Opera Parallele gave a moving world premiere of The Pigeon Keeper in San Francisco last night….At 80 minutes, the piece felt neither long nor short, it was its own suspension in time. …every note felt intentional.
— SF Classical Voice

The dichotomy of assimilation – among other things – was brilliantly explored in the new opera by composer David Hanlon and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann titled The Pigeon Keeper… Billed as “a modern fable of kindness in a fractured world,” the opera packed a lot of punches in its concise, intermission-less 75-minute duration. Besides assimilation, the fable…explores the themes of a broken family torn by tragedy, acceptance, bullying, and poverty (one of the main reasons why the villagers can’t accommodate the boy). But above all, the theme of kindness prevails throughout the opera. There was a lot of joy to be had with Hanlon’s music, which, with minimal forces (eight people to be exact, five strings with flute/piccolo, clarinet, and percussions), conjures the sounds and rhythm of the island.//The writing for the girls’ chorus was particularly gorgeous, at times haunting, at other times mysterious and ethereal. I genuinely applaud Opera Parallèle and everyone involved for providing such a relevant and timely fable in such a heartfelt and exceptional way and for delivering such deep food for thought. I wish more people would experience this opera in the future, as the message of kindness is truly needed in this seemingly cruel world.
— Parterre Box

The artistic creators accomplish the task with a wonderfully appealing under-90-minute musical work of magical realism that depicts joy and pathos in an emotionally touching piece with great relevance to our time.

— Cordell Reports