Anthony Davis and Bodhi Tree Will Adapt the Immigrant Story, ‘Pancho Rabbit,’ Into a Chamber Opera

The children's book, Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote: A Migrant's Tale, will receive its opera premiere in January 2026, in both San Diego and Tijuana. The chamber opera adaptation will be created by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis, and San Diego's Bodhi Tree Concerts.

Published in 2013, Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote was written by Duncan Tonatiuh, and won a Pura Belpré Award the following year. It tells the story of Pancho Rabbit, who treks north of the border to look for his father who failed to come home. Along the way, he overcomes several perils, including a river crossing, border guard snakes, and a scheming coyote who offers to be his guide.

The libretto will come from Allan Havis, and will be written in English, Spanish, and a "border slang" mixing both.

TOPSHOT-US-MEXICO-POLITICS-MIGRATION — TOPSHOT - This aerial picture taken on September 23, 2023 shows a family holding on as they try to navigate swift currents in the Rio Grand river as they cross the US-Mexico border to Eagle Pass, Texas. The struggles of immigrant families are the focus of the children's book, 'Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote,' and its chamber opera adaptation by Anthony Davis. ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

The dangers faced by Mexican immigrant families lies well within Anthony Davis' repertoire: he has written about the struggles of Native Americans in Wakonda's Dream, and the life of Malcolm X in the highly acclaimed X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X. Already known for drawing from jazz, funk, hip-hop and other contemporary styles, Davis will make us of both nortēno music and rock influences, and will incorporate such instruments as marimba and accordion in Pancho Rabbit.

Havis and Davis have worked together before in 2009's Lilith, and 2012's Lear on the 2^nd Floor.

As for Davis's partnership with Bodhi Tree for Pancho Rabbit, it dates back to 2018, but was slowed down by the process of obtaining the rights to adapt the book and to raise funds for the production.

"We've been dreaming about doing this for a long time and we feel extraordinarily lucky to work with someone as brilliant as Anthony," said Diana DuMelle, who co-founded Bodhi Tree with her husband. "Anthony is a genius who has lived his whole career telling stories that are not usually told."

"Pancho Rabbit is in the tradition of Peter and The Wolf and George Orwell's Animal Farm," Davis said. "It has an adult subtext but I want to keep the appeal and specialness of it as a children's story."