Aspen Music Festival Debuts New Works by Snider and Lang

Aspen —A two-hour opera. A 70-minute oratorio. Two brand-new works making their Aspen Music Festival debuts next week, and neither is afraid to tackle heavy concepts without putting the audience to sleep.

The festival’s programming radar isn’t just pinging on the usual crowd-pleasers — pianists Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Yuja Wang are scheduled for recitals and concertos — but on the intellectual weight of what comes between them. Sara Kirkland Snider’s “Hildegard” takes the stage in Harris Hall on Friday, while David Lang’s “The Wealth of Nations” opens the Chamber Symphony program on Saturday. Both are co-commissions that have already proven they can hold an audience elsewhere, and now they’re coming home to Aspen.

Snider’s opera centers on Hildegard von Bingen, the 12th-century Benedictine abbess who was also a polymath writing on medicine and botany. She’s the earliest named composer in Western music history whose biography is known, which sounds like a trivia fact until you realize her ethereal music remains relevant today. Snider has absorbed that choral style, resulting in what critics have called “luminous,” “rapturous,” and “voluptuously tuneful” music.

The libretto, written by Snider herself, takes some liberties with history. It adopts Oliver Sacks’s theory that migraines likely caused Hildegard’s visions, a detail Snider relates to personally, as she suffers from migraines too. The opera suggests personal connections that may be conjectures but make for a fleshed-out storyline rather than a dry recitation of dates.

“My initial drafts of the libretto were a bit too academic and dry, not enough relatable universal emotional themes,” Snider said. She recalled that Beth Morrison, who presented the world premiere in Los Angeles, told her “this needs to be an opera, not a dissertation.”

The result is a focus on our desire for connection - to spirituality, to humanity, and the conflicts that compete therein. The Aspen version is slightly shorter than previous productions in Los Angeles and New York because there are enough singers here to skip costume and scene changes. Colorful projections do the heavy lifting, making this a semi-staged performance that doesn’t require the transitional music needed for full set changes.

On Saturday, David Lang presents his 70-minute oratorio on Adam Smith’s 1776 economic treatise, The Wealth of Nations. Lang, known for rewriting Beethoven’s Fidelio to emphasize political aspects, approaches Smith with similar intent. The book gave us “The Invisible Hand” and “The Division of Labor,” but Lang ensures this isn’t a dry economic essay. He was inspired by Handel’s Messiah, an oratorio that meditates on the life of Jesus in a concert format rather than a church service.

Lang’s work arrives before Yuja Wang plays the Barber Piano Concerto, bridging the gap between abstract economic theory and tangible musical performance. It’s not just about money; it’s about the “benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker” and how self-interest drives our dinner tables.

For locals, this means two distinct intellectual investments for the price of a festival ticket. You’re getting history, economics, and migraines all wrapped in sound. The Aspen Music Festival isn’t just selling notes; it’s selling context. If you’re looking for a break from the usual repertoire, these new works offer a spiritual and economic connection that doesn’t require a degree in music theory to appreciate.

The practical takeaway is simple: Harris Hall will be full on Friday, and the Chamber Symphony hall will be packed Saturday. Both performances are co-commissions that have already won over critics in Los Angeles, New York, and beyond. They’re here now. The data shows enthusiasm; the schedule confirms it.