A contentious lesbian staging of a 103-year-old opera that features bloody gore and kinky themes in relation to Catholicism has reportedly left at least 18 cowards theatergoers in need of medical attention in Stuttgart, Germany this past weekend.
On Thursday, The Guardian reported that a dozen and a half audience members at Sancta, a newly staged opera by Austrian choreographer and performance artist Florentina Holzinger, required treatment for “severe nausea.” Staged at the Stuttgart State Opera, Sancta, which is Holzinger’s first opera production, includes lesbian and nonbinary performers in a reimagining of the Catholic mass, which is putting it… lightly. According to Spike Art Magazine, this opera has everything: half-nude roller skating nuns, BDSM play, lesbian sex, and cannibalism. Yes, literal cannibalism.
The physical reactions to Sancta have received coverage from right-wing outlets such as the New York Post, The Times, and the Daily Mail. In a statement posted to her Instagram story on Friday, Holzinger said, “The fact that we have to deal with threats of violence and hate speech from bigots and dogmatics… is part of the problem and the reason why it seemed so important to me to do this show in the first place.”
“If you don't want to see it, don't come,” she continued. “Above all, anyone who does not tolerate descriptions of violence should not go on a show with bonds to the Catholic Church.”
Sancta premiered at the Mecklenburg state theater in Schwerin, Germany in May. It is based on the 1922 expressionist opera Sancta Susanna, composed by Paul Hindemith, which explores the story of the titular Susanna, a young nun reckoning with her feelings of lust, according to the classical music publication Gramophone. An older nun named Klementia warns her with a story about a nun named Beata who, years before the events of the opera, climbed onto a crucifix completely naked and as a consequence, was buried alive as penance for her outburst. Inspired, Susanna herself strips from the waist down and begs for the same fate. In the scenes that follow, a series of unpredictable acts are part of what has driven the outrage from right wing media: half-nude nuns skateboard in a half-pipe, bodies hang upside inside bells as human clappers, other nuns engage in lesbian sex acts, getting spanked by Jesus Christ, and audience members are invited to confess their sins in exchange for vodka. In one particularly gorey moment, Spike Art Magazine reports that a piece of flesh is cut from a performer’s side, fried in a pan, and consumed by a fellow nun before another performer puts their finger in the wound, á la Caravaggio’s The Incredulity of Saint Thomas.
We have to tip our hats to Holzinger for her hedonism, especially considering that The Guardian reports that she “previously suggested that her opera was less designed to mock the church than explore parallels between the conservative institution on the one hand, and kink communities and BDSM subcultures on the other.”
The Stuttgart State Opera has defended the production, and added more context on those that sought medical attention. In a statement posted to its website on Thursday, Marcus Zinser, the head of the opera’s visitor service, said that the 18 people who fell ill had less to do with the content of the opera than the fact that “wherever a lot of people come together and sit close together, there is always assistance from the visitor service or doctors;” in fact, some of the people who required medical attention needed it before the performance even began.
Zinser acknowledged, though, that “the infliction of a wound on stage” was an uncomfortable experience for some guests. “Some of the visitors who left the auditorium complained of feeling unwell, and often a sip of water is enough to help,” he said. “Incidentally, several visitors then returned to the auditorium.”
Wimps! All of them!
You can watch a trailer for Sancta here, and if you’re feeling particularly devotional, you can even purchase merch for the production.
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