THE PIGEON KEEPER
an orchestra workshop

Music by David Hanlon
Libretto by Stephanie Fleishmann

University of Michigan
Stamps Auditorium
1226 Murfin Ave.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109

A fictional Mediterranean island.  Orsia, 12, lives in a village by the sea.  Her father, Thalasso, is a fisherman, but the ocean has not been kind in recent years; the waters have been overfished; there are days when Thalasso comes home empty-handed.  But what’s worse, ever since Orsia’s mother died seven years ago, Orsia’s father has forgotten how to laugh. On the anniversary of her mother’s death, Thalasso takes Orsia fishing.  In the distance, they spot a large fish.  Coming closer, they discover a boy hanging on to a piece of broken boat.  They rescue this refugee from a faraway land and bring him home, but Thalasso is adamant: they cannot keep him.  Orsia, who sees in the strange, silent child the brother she lost when her mother died in childbirth, pleads with Thalasso, who relents, allowing him to stay – but only for three days.  Orsia sets out to find the boy a home in the village – to no avail.  It is the Pigeon keeper, himself an emigrant from a faraway land, who stirs the boy to find his voice through song.  Just as Thalasso is about to banish the child, the boy sings, warming Thalasso’s heart.  This tale, which speaks to today’s mass migrations of peoples traversing the globe, explores how we respond to those in need in a time of hardship and scarcity; and celebrates the kindness of strangers, the power of human connection, and the unexpected places we find family.