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Hildegard
Music and libretto by Sarah Kirkland Snider
A medieval clash of desire and devotion
At a Glance
- A world premiere based on the real-life nun, mystic and composer Hildegard of Bingen
- An immersive and intimate tale of two genius women finding their voices
- By Sarah Kirkland Snider, “one of today’s most compelling composers” (NPR)
Set in 1147, HILDEGARD follows German Benedictine abbess/polymath/composer St. Hildegard von Bingen as she receives visions from God. At grave risk of excommunication, she sets out to document her visions, enlisting her fellow nun Richardis von Stade to illustrate the manuscript. As they develop a transformative partnership 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 making it. More broadly, HILDEGARD is about the desire for connection—to divinity, to humanity and to our deepest sense of self—and the conflicts that compete therein.
Composer-librettist Sarah Kirkland Snider's compositions have been hailed as “rapturous” (New York Times), “groundbreaking” (Boston Globe) and “ravishingly beautiful” (NPR). Known for her orchestral and chamber works, featuring music of direct expression and dramatic narrative, she comes to opera for the first time with Hildegard. This highly anticipated world premiere marks LA Opera's 17th innovative collaboration with the pioneering Beth Morrison Projects, hailed as “a driving force behind America’s thriving opera scene” (Financial Times) and a company that “more than any other… has helped propel the art form into the 21st century” (Opera News).
Performances take place at The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts
9390 North Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Run time: approximately two hours and 20 minutes, including one intermission
Sung in English
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, and Mannes School of Music.
Listen
The opera portrays historical figures: the German Benedictine abbess Hildegard von Bingen (c. 1098–1179), a brilliant writer, composer, philosopher and mystic; and Richardis von Stade (c. 1124–1152), a nun who was Hildegard's secretary and advisor.
Hildegard has begun seeing visions of God. She transcribes these visions to obtain Papal imprimatur, at grave risk of ex-communication. She enlists a young convalescent, Richardis von Stade, to help illustrate her visions. The two women quickly develop a transformative partnership that awakens them creatively, spiritually, and—much to the internal conflict of both women—romantically.
A dispute with Hildegard’s superior costs her and her novitiate daughters the right to make music, underscoring Hildegard's fundamental lack of agency in the patriarchal monastic culture and jeopardizing her standing within the Church. As Hildegard anxiously awaits the Pope to declare her prophet or heretic, the love between Hildegard and Richardis becomes impossible to ignore, and an unforeseen crisis threatens both their hard-won accomplishments and the intimacy—in all its complexity and secrecy—that has become their salvation.
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