Sometimes a headache is a good thing, and sometimes a migraine is a message from God. At least that’s what Hildegard of Bingen thought. Often called the Sibyl of the Rhine, she was a mystic, visionary, writer, composer, philosopher and medical practitioner. In perspective, she was the 12th-century German Renaissance woman before anything like this existed.
“From my childhood, before my bones, nerves, and veins were fully strengthened, I have always seen this vision in my soul, even to the present time,” he wrote late in his life. “The light I thus see is not spatial, but is far, far brighter than the clouds that bear the sun. I cannot measure its height, length, or breadth; and I call it the ‘reflection of the living light.’ And the sun, moon, and stars appear as they do.”
Speculation on Hildegard’s affliction varies, with some calling it a divine manifestation and more scientifically calling it epilepsy, autism, or neurosis. Oliver sack opined in his 1970 book Migraine“Migraine with aura.” This has attracted the composer and fellow migraine sufferer Sarah Kirkland Snyder to Hildegard.
“I wanted it to be an opera about what it means to be yourself when you collide with socially conditioned notions of right and wrong,” Schneider told the Observer about his first opera. Hildegardwhich had its world premiere yesterday as part of LA Opera’s Grand Series Highlighting New Works, running through November 9 at The Wallis in Beverly Hills. “I wanted to write an opera that was not just about Hildegard but about female relationships, collaborative, empowering.”
An empowering relationship that Snyder shares with the visionary producer Beth Morrisonwho firmly believed in the composer’s first operatic effort after falling in love with her PenelopeA 2010 song cycle based on Homer The Odyssey.
“I’m very proud of him,” Morrison said of Snyder. “It’s been a total labor of love. He loves Hildegard so much, the historical figure, and he’s written so beautifully. And I can’t wait to share it with everyone.”
Snyder’s music has been performed at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center and the Sydney Opera House with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Emerson String Quartet and soprano Renee Fleming. Much of his work focuses on chamber ensemble compositions, orchestral, and most recently choral and sacred music, as in his 2020 album. Mass for the endangered. Despite his many achievements, opera remains a mountain still obscure.
“I’m not really a big opera fan,” he admits, which may explain why it took him so long to compose. “It’s either overblown, and seems kind of stilted and ridiculous, or it doesn’t seem immersive or emotional enough. With a lot of modern opera, I have a hard time relating to the characters. So, I wanted to make things immersive and emotional and relatable.”
Hildegard director Elkhon: Pulitzerwho regularly collaborates with the composer John AdamsRecently directed by him Antony and Cleopatra His LA Opera productions at the Met include Donizetti’s Lucia of Lammermoor In 2014. for Hilgard, He envisions a mix of influences inspired by medieval religious painting and iconography, as well as a minimalist take on Hildegard’s own artwork.
Leading a cast of nine, the soprano Nola Richardson Made her LA Opera debut as Hildegard, soprano with her Michaela Bennett Richard as the veteran baritone David Adam MooreSeen in a Beth Morrison production earlier this year worship, Playing the superior role of Hildegard, Abbott lime.
In her early fifties, Hildegard met and cared for Sister Richardus, an epileptic who endured the age’s best-known cure for her affliction—severe beatings meant to ward off malignant spirits. In return for Hildegard’s kindness, Richardus transcribed her vision for presentation to the Pope. If they are not approved, Hildegard faces ostracism, turning the main conflict of the opera into an individual versus an entrenched power structure. But there are more—rape, alienation, accidental suicide, and faceless angels, to name a few.
Morrison introduced Snyder to the two librettists early in a process that began eight years earlier. Librettos are usually written by poets, who are good at saying a lot in a few words. Snyder remembers hearing repeated refrains: “You’ve got so many ideas here, you really should write them down.”
“I felt a lot of self-doubt,” she shrugs. “But then when I started getting involved with the music, it really helped shape the libretto. I only had nine instruments to work with. For me, it’s a relatively small piece. And for a two-hour opera, I think the challenges were mostly how to keep the interest, how to find the peaks and valleys and move this thing along.”
Morrison had concerns but stood behind Snyder in his attempt to write his own libretto, bringing the drama to life Annie Jean Wang and to assist director Elkhanah Pulitzer. “So, when he settled into himself with that, and found his confidence, he was able to really write this very, very beautiful narrative and language that is our libretto today,” Morrison recalls.
It wasn’t just the libretto that pushed Snyder to his limits. There were a series of workshops and meetings, excluding his voice and music, a process he found “cruel and destructive”.
“Emotionally, I’m constantly falling apart and having to rebuild myself, my confidence and conviction,” she lamented. “Arguing with a group about my ideas, it’s not easy. I’ve made some battle scars.”
In the mind, anyone can guess Hildegard Will be Snider’s first and last opera. But no, she says she can’t wait to do something else. “Writing a two-and-a-half-hour opera allows you to think on a bigger canvas, bigger storylines,” she suggests. “I always try to make musical connections and repeat motifs, but that’s not easy to do in two and a half hours. I want the music to tell the story and help orient the listener. For me, it’s referencing your own materials in a way that keeps it fresh and changing, and using new harmonic colors to shape the pace of what I’ve done before the character evolves. Scale.”
Hildegard as part of Beth Morrison Productions’ Prototype Festival in January and will be presented at the Aspen Music Festival Summer 2026. Also coming early next year is Schneider’s new orchestral album move towards the light, As well as an untitled new work for New World Symphony and Miami City Ballet premieres in April. After that, he will introduce of marble with the Monterey Symphony in May.
“I’m always trying to push in new directions with my music and lean into my fears, because I think interesting things can happen there,” she says. “I’ve grown a lot through this process. We have this idea that as we grow up, we become bound, we count our ideas and our ways of doing things. With this opera, it’s reversed for me. I’ve pulled and renewed all the cells in my body. And I feel younger and more alive, I’m really creative and creatively winning than ever before.”
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