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This will be the premiere of the full length opera about the life of Air Force hero Fernando Luis Ribas-Dominicci, whose fighter jet was shot down near Libya in April, 1986, during Operation El Dorado Canyon. The short 25- minute chamber opera premiered in April 2021 and I've since been commissioned to expand the work into a full length 75 minute opera. The family of Major Fernando Luis Ribas-Dominicci, now resides in San Antonio and whose son, Fernando Ribas-Berrain, is one of my closest friends since we were teenagers. I had a common bond with Fernando in that we both grew up without fathers but it wasn’t until about 4 years ago, that Fernando told me the complete story of his dad and I have since wished to create an adaptation.

Ribas-Dominicci was an F-111F pilot in the United States Air Force who was killed in action during Operation El Dorado Canyon. Ribas-Dominicci was given secret orders from President Ronald Reagan for the April 15, 1986 U.S. air raid on Libya. Ribas-Domminicci, who participated in the air raid as a member of the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing, was shot down in action over the disputed Gulf of Sidra off the Libyan coast. Ribas-Dominicci was 33 years old.

On December 25, 1988, after years of denying that they had the bodies of the two crew members, Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi, offered to release the body of Ribas-Berrain’s co-pilot, Paul Lorence to his family through Pope John Paul II. The body recovered and thought to be that of Lorence was actually that of then-Captain Fernando L. Ribas-Dominicci, which was identified by dental records and returned in 1989. Ribas-Dominicci was born in the town of Utado in Puerto Rico and since his passing, the airport in San Juan named Fernando Ribas Dominicci Airport and the City of Utuado honored its fallen hero by naming a main avenue as Fernando Ribas-Dominicci Avenue.