HILDEGARD | Presented by PROTOTYPE, in Partnership with BRIC

PLEASE NOTE: The PROTOTYPE and BRIC Member Presale runs from Nov. 3-16. Learn more about how to access presale tickets HERE. General public ticket sales open Nov. 17.

Sarah Kirkland Snider, Composer and Librettist
Elkhanah Pulitzer, Director
Gabriel Crouch, Music Director

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.

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 New York premiere is produced by the trailblazing Beth Morrison Projects, hailed as “a driving force behind America’s thriving opera scene” (Financial Times), and presented in collaboration with BRIC as part of the “utterly essential” (The New York Times) PROTOTYPE Festival, NYC’s annual showcase for visionary opera-theatre and music-theatre works, running January 7-18, 2026. prototypefestival.org

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 commissioning support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts. 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, William Kennedy, Betsy Greenberg, and Pamela Drexel. Developed and produced by Beth Morrison Projects.

A talkback with the creative team will follow the Saturday, January 11, 5pm performance.