During the 2025-26 season, HGO honors the late Robert Wilson and his production of Messiah. Born in Waco, Texas, Wilson integrated a wide variety of artistic media, including dance, movement, lighting, sculpture, music, and text, into his works for the stage. HGO previously staged Wilson’s productions of Turandot (2022), Parsifal (1992), and Four Saints in Three Acts (1996). After being educated at the University of Texas and Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute, Wilson founded the New York-based performance collective The Byrd Hoffman School of Byrds in the mid-1960s, and developed his first signature works, including Deafman Glance (1970) and A Letter for Queen Victoria (1974-75). With Philip Glass, he wrote the seminal opera Einstein on the Beach (1976). Wilson’s artistic collaborators included many writers and musicians such as Heiner Müller, Tom Waits, Susan Sontag, Laurie Anderson, William Burroughs, Lou Reed, Jessye Norman, and Anna Calvi. His drawings, paintings, and sculptures were presented around the world. He was honored with numerous awards for excellence, including a Pulitzer Prize nomination, two Premio Ubu awards, the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale, and an Olivier Award. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as the German Academy of the Arts, and held eight Honorary Doctorate degrees. France pronounced him Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters (2003) and Officer of the Legion of Honor (2014). Germany awarded him the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit (2014), and laureate of the 2023 Praemium Imperiale. He was the founder and Artistic Director of The Watermill Center, a laboratory for the arts in Water Mill, New York.