Touch is a chamber opera, commissioned by Opera Birmingham to premiere in January 2024, about the life of Helen Keller, celebrated 20th century deaf and blind author and activist, and Anne Sullivan Macy, her confidant and friend.  The opera Touch picks up where the play The Miracle Worker ends, exploring the complicated relationship between Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan Macy, John Macy (Anne’s husband), and Peter Fagan (Helen’s interpreter and star-crossed lover).

The production features three principal singing roles (Anne Sullivan Macy, John Macy, and Peter Fagan). An actor plays the role of Helen Keller, and there is an ensemble of seven singers, representing Helen’s voice and doubling in secondary roles.  Helen’s Choir may be onstage at times, other times they may be offstage or in the pit.

For this production, we are particularly interested in casting artists with operatic training who may be Blind, Deaf, low-vision and/or low-hearing, as well as artists who know American Sign Language or are comfortable with fingerspelling.  Casting will also be racially and ethnically diverse, and may include Deaf and/or Blind actors performing in tandem with a singer.

Stage Director

• We are interested in engaging a Blind, Deaf, low-vision and/or low-hearing director for this production, or a director with experience working with Deaf and/or Blind performers

Helen Keller (Leading Role)

• Character:  woman in her 20s (in her 50s by the end of the opera), DeafBlind; a force of nature, keenly insightful of everything and everyone around her, who could be mischievous and temperamental at times

• Voice:  actress (no singing required), with Helen’s thoughts and text sung by a rotating choir of voices

Helen’s Voice (Leading Role – soprano voice in Helen’s Choir throughout opera)

• Voice:  light lyric or coloratura soprano (E4 to C6), with a range of expression from playful to angry (reflecting Helen’s broad moods)

Anne Sullivan (Leading Role)

• Character:  woman in her 30s (in her 60s by the end of the opera) with low vision; put together and precise in everything she says and does, with great dignity counterbalancing her childhood which was anything but

• Voice:  lyric soprano (D4 to C6), legato lines and clear diction

John Macy (Leading Role – also in Helen’s Choir for some scenes)

• Character:  middle-aged male; Boston academic, passionate, bleeding heart liberal and a hopeless drunk

• Voice:  lyric tenor (D3 to A4), lyrical legato and capable of piano singing in upper voice; could also have a darker color reflecting his temper and alcoholic tendencies

Peter Fagan (Leading Role – also in Helen’s Choir for some scenes)

• Character:  young man in mid 20s; love-sick idealist, and intellectual who teaches himself finger-signing in case he should meet Helen Keller (Peter is a prime character to be paired with a Deaf/Blind actor)

• Voice:  lyric tenor (D3 to A4) with a sweet and youthful sound

Kate Keller (Featured Role – also in Helen’s Choir for some scenes)

• Character:  Southern lady in her 40s; fierce and compassionate

• Voice:  lyric mezzo soprano (A3 to A5) with a warmth in her voice reflecting her maturity

Polly Thompson (Featured Role – also in Helen’s Choir for some scenes)

• Character:  woman in her early 30s; a bit mousy, sees an opportunity when it presents itself and makes things happen

• Voice:  lyric mezzo soprano (A3 to G5) with a younger/brighter sound than Kate

James Keller (Feature Roled – also in Helen’s Choir for some scenes)

• Character:  Helen’s half-brother, 16 years older than Helen; chip off the old block of his father Arthur Keller

• Voice:  lyric tenor (C3 to A4), can have a fuller sound to reflect the anger his character shows is most of his scenes

Arthur Keller (Featured Role – also in Helen’s Choir throughout the opera)

• Character:  Helen’s father, a Southern gentleman in his 40s; privileged and unaware

• Voice:  Bass, or bass-baritone (F2 to C#4), full sound in lower voice to give weight and gravitas to Helen’s thoughts, also able to sing with lightness and flexibility in more playful sections

Touch opens as Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan prepare for Helen’s graduation from Radcliffe College, and we experience the extraordinary and codependent connection between these two strong women. A flashback shows the struggle Helen’s parents went through before Anne Sullivan came into Helen’s life. As Helen becomes a celebrated writer, the relationship between Helen and Anne is stressed when Anne marries the drunken and philandering John Macy.

As the marriage inevitably unravels, Helen discovers her calling as an anti-war and women’s suffrage activist, while an emotionally drained Anne becomes ill. Peter Fagan, a young interpreter, is hired to fill in while Anne recovers. A passionate love affair blossoms between Helen and Peter. The romance is doomed, as the Keller family and Anne plot to end it without Helen’s knowledge, leaving her with the impression that Peter has abandoned her. Helen is devastated and only finds strength in being extraordinarily productive as a celebrity advocate for her humanitarian causes. She pushes Anne at a fever pitch until Anne succumbs to her illness and must stop. The opera ends with the two women together as Anne gives her dying confession, that she took part in sabotaging the relationship with Peter. Helen, feeling the sharp pains of love lost all over again, chooses to forgive before her teacher and lifetime companion takes her last breath.