Hildegard tickets

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.