About

Co-commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects and the Aspen Music Festival and School, HILDEGARD is a work of operatic historical fiction about twelfth-century German Benedictine abbess/polymath St. Hildegard von Bingen. Set in 1147, the opera follows Hildegard as she receives visions from God. While transcribing these visions for Papal evaluation – a process that will decide her prophet or heretic – she enlists the young convalescent Richardis von Stade to illustrate the manuscript. As they develop a transformative collaboration that awakens them in ways both profound and unexpected, the two women must confront the powers that would see them erased from history rather than authoring it. At the same time, Hildegard is haunted by mysterious visions she cannot explain, forcing her to grapple with unacknowledged truths she can no longer deny.

The composer writes:

“I wrote the libretto myself because I had an idea for how to tell her story and wanted the freedom to adapt the text as I wrote the music. For the past eight years, I’ve extensively researched her life and work, monastic culture, and the broader political history of her time. I’ve visited her abbeys and the town where she was born and have developed a close relationship with Hildegard scholar Barbara Newman.

Traditionally, opera has not been an art form that tells stories of strong, accomplished women. The operatic repertoire will offer a deeper, more nuanced, more relevant view of humanity if it does this. Hildegard’s story shines a light on the past while illuminating our present day, as the challenges Hildegard and Richardis faced – discrimination, oppression, repression – are surprisingly resonant today, almost nine hundred years later.”

With her words, visions, and music as inspiration, HILDEGARD strives to paint an intimate, affecting portrait of two fascinating women that is not only timely but musically powerful, visually striking, and narratively captivating.

Support

Commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects. Commissioned in part by the Aspen Music Festival and School and OPERA America Grants for Female Composers award funded by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation. Additional funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. The production of Hildegard received funding from OPERA America’s Opera Fund, New York State Council on the Arts, New Music USA, the Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Charitable Foundation, Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, William Kennedy, Betsy Greenberg and Pamela Drexel. Developed and produced by Beth Morrison Projects. Developed with Lyric Theater @ University of Illinois, Princeton University, Mannes School of Music, and NYU Tandon @ The Yard.