Mahogany Opera will present the world premiere of “Ecstasy of the Virtues,” a new opera by composer, director, and multidisciplinary artist Nwando Ebizie, on Sept. 25, 2026 at Stone Nest in London, with further performances on Sept. 26 and 27.

The production subsequently travels to the Howard Assembly Room in Leeds in partnership with Opera North on Oct. 3, and to Barrow Town Hall in partnership with Full of Noises as part of Barrow Music Week on Oct. 7.

The work is inspired by the life and visions of twelfth-century Benedictine abbess, composer, and mystic Hildegard von Bingen. Ebizie draws on her own experience of visual snow syndrome, a neurological condition producing visual phenomena including starbursts, auras, and halos, as a point of connection with Hildegard’s visionary states. The 90-minute work is inspired by Hildegard’s morality play “Ordo Virtutum,” transposing its cast of allegorical Virtues into twenty-first century guises.

The cast of twelve performers includes Deaf performance artist Chisato Minamimura, composer and vocalist Laura Bowler, Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian, Grace Nyandoro, Sara Amini, and Yfat Soul Zisso. The creative team is led by Ebizie as lead artist, composer, and director, with associate director Jennifer Muteteli White, set and video designer Tzung-Hui Lee, choreographer Krystal Lowe, and costume designer Polly Simon.

“I want to open a doorway into that alternate reality: a liminal space where the Soul meets her shadow self, where the pain of being human is transformed into the beauty of being human,” Ebizie said, per an official press release.

“Ecstasy of the Virtues” is one chapter in Ebizie’s long-term “Hildegard: Visions” project and one of five world premieres Mahogany Opera is presenting in 2026.