The Tin Angel Opera, written to a libretto by Paul Pines and based on his widely acclaimed novel of the same name, with music by award-winning composer Daniel Asia, is set in the edgy world of a NYC downtown Bowery jazz club, where a unique cast of characters play out their dramatic story as a call for redemption.

The inspiration behind the story is The Tin Palace, the real-life New York City’s jazz mecca of the 70s, founded by Paul Pines in 1973.​​

The Tin Angel is a grand opera in the tradition of Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, and Carlisle Floyd, great American composers who incorporated popular folk songs and jazz styles into serious works with an unmistakably American flavor. Daniel Asia (music) and Paul Pines (libretto) have based the story on Pines’ own hit novel from 1982, and it’s a story unlike any other in opera, combining the American immigrant experience with the energy and suspense of a detective thriller. It incorporates elements of jazz into serious art music in a tale of love, revenge, and redemption set in the dangerous, underground world of a Bowery nightclub.