Opera of live sex and piercing leaves 18 theatregoers ill with severe nausea in Germany
Sancta by Austrian choreographer Florentina Holzinger has been criticised by Catholic leaders as ‘a disrespectful parody of the Holy Mass’
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At least 18 theatregoers in Germany needed medical treatment over the weekend after they watched a radical feminist opera featuring live piercings, explicit sexual acts, rollerblading nuns, and real and fake blood.
Sancta, which has several content warnings about sex and mutilation, held its first shows at the Stuttgart opera house over the weekend.
Austrian choreographer Florentina Holzinger’s production is based on a controversial 1920s expressionist opera called Sancta Susanna by Paul Hindemith which examined the relationship between celibacy and lust in Christianity.
“On Saturday we had eight and on Sunday we had 10 people who had to be looked after by our visitor service,” Sebastian Ebling, opera spokesperson, told the newspaper Stuttgarter Zeitung.
“We recommend that all audience members once again very carefully read the warnings so they know what to expect. If you have questions, speak to the visitor service,” Ebling added. “And when in doubt during the performance, it might help to avert your gaze.”
According to local media, the 18 audience members felt nauseous while watching the opera and needed first aid. Ebling said three of those who needed help felt so ill a doctor had to be called in.
Any assumption that reports about audience members taking sick would deter others from going to the show have been proven wrong, considering the five remaining shows in Stuttgart and two more scheduled at Berlin’s Volksbühne in November have sold out.
A warning on the official theatre portal cautions that the show includes “explicit sexual acts as well as images and descriptions of violence”, real blood and stage blood, piercing and wounding, nudity, strobe effects, high volume and incense. The directors state that the show may be traumatic for audience members.
Holzinger, 38, is famous for shows which include nudity, body horror, acrobatics, and which make references to classical literature and mordant feminist commentary.
Sancta, Holzinger’s first opera, premiered at the Mecklenburg state theatre in Schwerin in May and left Catholic leaders distinctly unhappy.
Archbishop of Salzburg Franz Lackner said the show was “seriously offensive to believers’ religious feelings and convictions”.
“It is a disrespectful parody of the Holy Mass, which is the heart of the faith, and not only in the Catholic understanding,” said Hermann Glettler, the Bishop of Innsbruck.
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