A radical feminist opera that includes explicit scenes of lesbian sex, real blood and injuries, and nuns skating naked, has left 18 viewers in need of medical treatment in Austria.
Composer Paul Hindemith’s Sancta Susanna caused a scandal in 1921, with outraged critics calling the one-act opera, which tells the story of a repressed nun who discovers her sexuality, too blasphemous to be shown.
Its premiere at the Stuttgart Opera was cancelled, but more than 100 years later, it is now being performed in the city for the first time, with the shock factor amplified to dizzying new heights in what its creators call a “radical vision of the Holy Mass’.
Her provocative scenes left viewers stunned, with 18 suffering from nausea, shock and needing help during the first two performances. In three cases a doctor even had to be called.
Extreme performance artist Florentina Holzinger is behind this stunning adaptation, in which her all-female cast plays nuns who strip and strip naked during a “sensual, poetic and wild” spectacle.
The strangest scenes include an actress with dwarfism dressed as the Pope being lifted into the air and spun by a robotic arm, while another performs Eminem songs dressed as Jesus.
Sancta tells the story of a repressed nun who discovers her sexuality. At one point she prays while watching two lovers in the garden of her convent.
In one scene, naked tattooed performers climb on a table, drink wine and sing, while another raises a crucifix-shaped sword and shoves it down their throat.
A female Pope appears in the performance, which critics say “dissects” Catholicism.
At one point, an actress with dwarfism is dressed as the Pope is lifted into the air and rotated by a robotic arm.
Performers in nun veils skate on a halfpipe during a portion of the performance.
The shocking performance includes nudity and ‘painful’ stunts.
“Bach meets metal, weather girls meet Rachmaninoff and naked nuns meet skates,” is how the Stuttgart State Opera’s website summarizes the performance.
In the “feminist mass” the central character, a young nun named Susanna, discovers her sexuality and eventually lowers Christ’s loincloth over the crucifix in the scandalous climax.
The performance has an age restriction of 18 years and incorporates sexual acts, painful stunts, real and fake blood, piercings, and inflicting a wound on stage.
Naked performers hang from bells like clappers, with only their butts or heads visible, while others scale a rock wall with nothing but harnesses and climb ropes.
In one scene, naked tattooed performers climb on a table, drink wine and sing, while another raises a crucifix-shaped sword and shoves it down her throat.
In a very irreligious exchange, an actress playing Jesus whips a half-naked cleric.
And in one particularly disturbing scene, bodies are hung on the wall to imitate Christ on the cross, before vats of fake blood begin to be poured over them.
Most surprising of all, one critic detailed the moment one of the actors suffers an injury live on stage.
At one point, an actress playing Jesus whips a half-naked cleric.
The provocative show is based on an opera that critics called “blasphemous.”
To illustrate the Eucharist, the body of Christ, a piece of skin is cut from the artist’s side, which is then roasted over medium heat, according to the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.
On the show’s website, attendees are warned that the performance “is not fake, but real.”
In the case of sexual violence shown, the theater issues explicit warnings, saying that some may be left “uncomfortable” or even “traumatized” by the performance.
The almost three-hour show, without a break, proved too much for some of those attending the Stuttgart screenings.
An opera spokesman said those affected were in the rows near the stage and would have known “what they were getting into.”
The opera company recommends the show to audiences who “boldly seek new theatrical experiences.”
In the opera, a nun warns Susanna with an old story about the nun Beata, who had desired the Savior on the cross and was walled alive for it.
On the show’s website, attendees are warned that the performance “is not fake, but real.”
The cast plays nuns who take off their habits during a ‘sensual, poetic and wild’ show
“Exploring borders and crossing them with pleasure has always been a central task of art,” the opera quotes its artistic director Viktor Schoner.
Responding to questions about whether stage nudity is “necessary,” the State Opera website says: “Of course, theater and opera simply imitate reality: when people love, suffer and die on stage of opera, everything is just one act”.
“Things have been different for decades in performance art: here the person who acts does not embody a character, here the body itself is the medium – and in the work of Florentina Holzinger in particular, natural nudity is a means of expression very central.”
Organizers said Sancta will go ahead as planned, despite the effect it had on the audience, and insisted that nausea and fainting are normal in the theatre.
The 38-year-old Austrian choreographer behind the show has been causing a stir in the theater world for years with her staging of naked female bodies and her shocking acrobatics.
Topics include female sexual, physical and social oppression and a ‘dissection’ of Catholicism and organized religion.
1920s opera has a modern feel with contemporary music mixed with classical music.
There is nudity throughout the performance, which has an age restriction for attendees.
Born in Vienna in 1986, she studied at the School for New Dance Development (SNDO) in Amsterdam before launching her unorthodox career.
His works are known to push the boundaries of traditional dance, mixing it with elements of martial arts, circus and acrobatic performances.
Topics include female sexual, physical and social oppression and a “dissection” of Catholicism and organized religion.
His sexually charged and often violent and bloody performances are often presented with humor.
Christians have criticized the show, calling its content blasphemous and offensive. “Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,'” said one objector in one of Holzinger’s posts.
The actor who plays Jesus is said to perform songs inspired by Eminem
Naked performers hang from the bells like clappers, with only their bare butts or heads visible.
But the opera, which has already been performed in Germany and will be performed in Berlin next month, has been praised by critics.
‘A scandal? No, joy. “Overwhelming joy,” wrote one critic after seeing the show in Schwerin.
“Holzinger directs a musical theater for the first time and the result is so intelligent, so funny and so incredibly well-crafted that you are truly amazed.”