Hildegard von Bingen

Hildegard von Bingen is a chamber opera set in the Rheinhessen district of Germany in the mid twelfth century. It focusses on incidents in the life of Abbess Hildegard von Bingen and some of her historical and fictionalised contemporaries.

The libretto is constructed from texts by Hildegard and others, woven together with linking material to form a picture of the abbess and her interlocutors, not as immortalised and sanctified figurines but as deeply human figures whose situations and emotions reflect universal human concerns – love, loss, the fear of death and transcendence of misfortune.

The duet ‘Antiphon for Divine Love’ and arioso ‘My grief rises up’ were premiered separately, with piano accompaniment, at the second International Conference on Hildegard of Bingen convened by June Boyce-Tillman at King Alfred’s College Winchester, April 1996. The aria ‘Full Divine Love’ was premiered, also with piano accompaniment, at the British Music Information Centre, London, on 9 October 1996.

Act I as a whole was premiered at City University, London, on 19 June 1997.