In conjunction with UC Arts Empress Theatre Collective presented Free Radicals, a musical response to the often unsung achievements of women in science and technology as part of WORD Christchurch 2018. It paid tribute to Evelyn Boyd Granville, Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, Hildegard of Bingen, Maria Sybilla Merian, Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Hedy Lamarr, Beatrice Tinsley & Rangituatahi Te Kanawa.

In Feminea Forma is the final work of this production. Programme note below:

As Hildegard of Bingen prays in the church, whispering the words of her chant, Quia Ergo Femina, an invisible voice begins to blur with her own and she is overwhelmed by a powerful vision. In Feminea Forma is a musical manifestation of Hildegard’s received visions, which she described as vivid, powerful and sometimes painful to witness. It was this Divine voice that encouraged her to speak up, and such Divine revelations that enabled her to do so within the patriarchal confines of the Church. The melody of Hildegard’s own Gregorian chant swirls throughout the work, proclaiming in Latin that “the highest blessing is found in woman’s form before all creatures.” Contrary to the gentle peace expected from the Abbess, we hear a glimpse of Hildegard’s hidden inner strength burst forth. It is this fiery conviction that propelled Hildegard to lead her sisterhood of nuns forward to independence, supported not by men, but God.

Requiem

Requiem - performed by Bel Canto and conducted by Sue Densem