BEST BE ON YOUR HILDEGARD
WATCHING THIS THING

When approaching a work based on history, it’s expected that there will be some degree of fictionalization. Even though it won’t be completely true, the broad strokes will be, and you’ll leave having learned a tiny bit of something new. However, Hildegard, the dull new opera by Sarah Kirkland Snider that premiered last week at The Wallis, in partnership with Los Angeles Opera and Beth Morrison Projects, fails in this basic regard.

Nola Richardson as Hildegard

Mikaela Bennett as Richardis and Nola Richardson

Hildegard of Bingen was a German Benedictine abbess during the High Middle Ages, living from about 1098 until 1179. She was one of those amazing people of the past who learned and excelled in everything: theologian, doctor, scientist, composer, dramatist, poet—the list goes on. Transcending restrictions on women, she was astonishingly well-regarded during her lifetime, within the Church, among the rich and powerful, and the lay public. Her most significant writings were her books of visions, which she was initially hesitant to share. Once she did, everyone in the church hierarchy—from her confidants all the way up to the Pope—found them authentic and encouraged her.

Nola Richardson

Nola Richardson and Roy Hage as Volmar

When the opera begins, Hildegard (Nola Richardson) and her secretary (and number-one fan), monk Volmar (Roy Hage), are discussing her visionary writings and how she risks heresy and excommunication by continuing to write. One day, nun Richardis von Stade (Mikaela Bennett) gets unceremoniously placed in the Disibodenberg monastery; her family believes the devil is inside her. Hildegard knows better and sees that Richardis merely has epilepsy. She promptly puts Richardis to work as illustrator of her manuscript. Richardis’s health improves from this art therapy to such an extent that her seizures stop. The two women grow increasingly closer, eventually crossing the line from spiritual love to physical love. At this point, it becomes well known that Hildegard is, in actuality, a predatory lesbian. So, Mother von Stade (Blythe Gaissert) arranges to transfer Richardis to another abbey, despite her daughter’s improvement. Before she goes, a monk rapes Richardis, who then dies in Hildegard’s arms. From this, Hildegard decides to found her own abbey, climaxing in a confrontation with her antagonistic boss, Abbot Cuno (David Adam Moore).

Blythe Gaissert as Margravine von Stade and Mikaela Bennett

Mikaela Bennett

Instead of covering Hildegard’s very real achievements and spirituality, Snider’s libretto paints her as ambitious and worldly. Her talk of visions comes across more as bureaucratic navigation than windows into the divine. This is a woman who wrote three volumes chronicling her visions, yet, when Cuno asks why she wants to start a new abbey, all she says is, “I had a vision”—which, in this story, she uses as cover to get the nuns away from the rapey monks. Hildegard’s actual life story is fascinating. Why conjure up sensationalistic fiction that paints her as a proto-feminist fighting the patriarchy?

Chloë Engel as the Faceless Woman

David Adam Moore as Abbot Cuno

A stupid story in an opera can be forgiven if the music moves the soul. Alas, Snider’s music is formless, gloomy monotony that left me struggling to stay awake. The libretto is all dialogue set to random notes; performing it as a play would entail no changes. There’s nothing wrong with that, but the music doesn’t illuminate the characters or story. As Hildegard and Richardis fall in love, the music doesn’t convey their growing romance. It’s so sterile that a shocked Hildegard has to be told she’s falling in love with Richardis. I was surprised, too, since our leads had no romantic chemistry.

Patrick Bessenbacher as Mechtild, Nola Richardson, and Mikaela Bennett

David Adam Moore, Nola Richardson, and Patrick Bessenbacher

The cast was competent, with excellent English diction, but given the relentless sameness of music and words, no one stood out. Elkhanah Pulitzer’s direction was generally inoffensive, though her staging of Hildegard’s visions was unclear. Scenic design by Marsha Ginsberg was minimal but spent money on all the wrong things. A vertical screen dominated the dark stage above a wooden floor. Occasionally, a noisy bed hilariously thumped like a broken shopping cart as it was wheeled across the stage. A multipurpose cube stood in for various office spaces and rolled around just to move around. There’s a scene at two graves, signified by two rumpled gray towels. Talk about cheap.

Chloë Engel and Nola Richardson

Nola Richardson and Chloë Engel

Costumes by Molly Irelan were inconsistent. Hildegard and the monks’ wardrobe felt appropriate to the Middle Ages and their characters, but Richardis looked like a street urchin, not a member of the nobility. The two stagehands moving set pieces wore the traditional stagehand uniform—but with demon bird heads. Late in the opera, hunky modern demons, dressed as if left over from the West Hollywood Halloween Carnaval, terrorized Hildegard. Artwork and projection design by Deborah Johnson was clunky, vague, and served as a crutch for the finale.

Nola Richardson

Blythe Gaissert, Raha Mirzadegan as Gerta and Mikaela Bennett

The biggest sin of the night was, as usual with Beth Morrison Projects, the decision to amplify. What should have been a delicate ten-piece orchestra, conducted by Gabriel Crouch, became overbearing. Voices were completely disembodied from the singers, coming from the extreme sides of the stage and the surrounds, reaching ear-splitting levels during the most intense moments. This opera is about a composer of quiet, contemplative music! Drew Sensue-Weinstein’s sound design otherwise consisted of occasional rumbles and added reverb to the vocals. Opera should not be amplified, especially in theaters as intimate as The Wallis.

Why does well-funded modern opera in Los Angeles have to be such a chore? I went to the sold-out premiere. After intermission, every row had clusters of empty seats. Two hours and twenty minutes of fiction that pales in comparison to Hildegard’s actual history—and it took forever to end.

At bottom, Nola Richardson with (clockwise from top)
Blythe Gaissert, Raha Mirzadegan and Mikaela Bennett as Angels

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photos by Angel Origgi

Hildegard
Los Angeles Opera and Beth Morrison Projects
The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd. in Beverly Hills
ends on November 9, 2025
2 hours and 20 minutes, including one intermission
for tickets, visit The Wallis or LA Opera
plays next January 9-17, 2026, BRIC Arts Media in Brooklyn (PROTOTYPE Festival)

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Nola Richardson