Living Light (Cosmic Eye) for Hildegard Opera

Deborah Johnson

School of Art

I am developing the stage design and visuals for a new opera by Sarah Kirkland Snider with Beth Morrison Projects and directed by Elkannah Pulitzer, based on the early life of Hildegard von Bingen, the Germanic 12th-century composer, mystic, and polymath. My work brings Hildegard’s visions to life, illuminations that mirror Hildegard’s experiences. My designs will translate her visionary theology and illuminations into the animated realm with multidimensional tableaus while creating new visual interpretations based on Sarah Kirkland Snider’s libretto.

Hildegard (working title) is a new opera by composer/librettist Sarah Kirkland Snider that documents seven seminal years—1141 to 1148—in the life of Hildegard von Bingen, a German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, philosopher, and visionary. In 1141, von Bingen received the call from God to write down her visions and in 1148, von Bingen became the first woman in the Catholic Church to receive Papal approval to record her visions, along with permission to build her first women-only Abbey at Rupersburg. The opera plumbs the depths of von Bingen’s psyche as she prepared for Papal interrogation, how she defended herself against attack and ridicule and then endured the loss of permission to write for years until a verdict was reached. In a time and place where women had no voice, Hildegard, in her journey to speak authoritatively as the voice of God, learned to use her own—and encouraged the same of her sisters. 

Opera has not traditionally been an art form that tells stories of strong, accomplished women. The creation of Hildegard will make opera deeper, richer, and more relevant by illuminating the strength of women’s history.

Using Hildegard’s own words and music as inspiration for this opera’s libretto and score, Hildegard is a psychologically probing story of a fascinating woman that is musically affecting, visually engaging, and narratively riveting. The project will be written and composed by Sarah Kirkland Snider during 2023 and I will work in partnership with her to create and develop my designs of Hildegard’s visions in concert with Sarah’s writings. 

Hildegard created journals and illuminations of her extraordinary mystical visions. She evolved her self-belief and talents when women had no voice, agency, education, or paper to draw on. An anchorite from age 14, she accepted the command from God to “write what she sees and hears” in her late thirties. Hildegard experienced what she described as an “ecstatic loss of consciousness” like “sprinkling drops of sweet rain,” explosions of stars and concentric circles, and the sensation of floating above the Earth, in the clouds, absorbing the secrets of the universe. 

My work brings Hildegard’s visions to life, illuminations that mirror Hildegard’s experiences. My designs will translate her visionary theology and illuminations into the animated realm with multidimensional tableaus while creating new visual interpretations based on Sarah Kirkland Snider’s libretto. 

To help create this dramatic world of light, I am designing a mirrored mechanical device to create “Lumia,” meaning light art. This device will create ephemeral and ethereal lighting effects by reflecting and refracting colored lights, patterns, and projected imagery onto the opera’s set design and into the theatre. 

The device takes inspiration from the Clavilux, a “color organ” created by inventor and artist Thomas Wilfred, and The Joshua Light Show’s Briged Smith, who has popularized Lumia for contemporary musical performances.

My designs for the opera received a 2023 NYSCA grant for “New Tech” in the Film and Video category. I hope to collaborate with NYU Tandon and Pratt Institute to develop a prototype of the Lumia machine for use in workshops and a final design for the opera’s premiere and touring production.

More information about the opera:  https://bethmorrisonprojects.org/projects/projects-in-development/hildegard/