A Note from Director Elkhanah Pulitzer

Hildegard von Bingen’s life demonstrates that art is not a luxury—it is a necessity, a force capable of healing, transforming, and reshaping the world. Hildegard tells the story of a woman in the 12th century whose visions from God placed her at the threshold between prophet and heretic. An abbess, visionary, healer and composer, she risked condemnation, exile, even her life by daring to seek papal approval to publish her revelations. Against the weight of a patriarchal church hierarchy, she chose to speak, write and sing her truth. Nearly a millennium later, her voice continues to resound. The radical power of creativity is the heart of this opera. For Hildegard, art was a lifeline: a way to transform suffering into revelation—a path to salvation. Her music and writings opened new ways of imagining a world infused with compassion, wisdom and love. They remind us that creation itself can be an act of resistance, teaching us how to envision a better, more humane future.

 Central to this telling is her profound collaboration with Richardis von Stade. In our version, Richardis illustrates Hildegard’s Scivias while convalescing, giving luminous form to visions of Mother Wisdom—the feminine presence of God. Their partnership, grounded in care and devotion, awakens them in ways both profound and mysterious. It reflects how love and creativity intertwine, and how intimacy and imagination alike can become acts of healing and defiance. I imagine the world of Hildegard as a liminal space where sacred and human meet, where the veil between the visible and the unknowable can become porous, and a transformative encounter can occur. The design draws inspiration from medieval iconography refracted through modern simplicity, a world that celebrates symbolic representation and lives in the tension between light and shadow, sacred and profane, the earthly and celestial. 

Why tell Hildegard’s story now? Because her struggle is still ours. Voices are still suppressed. Power still resists change. Women are still silenced. Mystery is still feared rather than honored. And yet, art still holds the power to heal, to transform, and to reveal the divine within each of us.