Several audience members needed medical attention for severe nausea after an opera featuring sex scenes and piercings in Stuttgart, Germany.
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| Many audiences felt nauseous while watching the Sancta performance. |
“On Saturday (October 5) we had eight people and on Sunday (October 6) we had 10 people who had to be taken care of by the guest services department,” opera house spokesman Sebastian Ebling said of two performances of Sancta – a work by Austrian choreographer Florentina Holzinger. A doctor was called in to treat three cases, he added.
Holzinger, 38, is known for her freewheeling performances that blur the lines between dance theater and cabaret. Her all-female cast often performs semi-nude or fully nude. Past shows have included live sword swallowing, tattooing…
“For me, a good dancer is not only able to perform a perfect tendu, but also able to pee on command,” Holzinger told The Guardian in an interview earlier this year.
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| Austrian choreographer Florentina Holzinger. |
Sancta, Holzinger’s first opera, premiered at the Mecklenburg State Theatre in Schwerin, Germany in May. The work is based on Paul Hindemith’s 1920s opera Sancta Susanna, which has controversial content and history.
After Holzinger brought Sancta to her native Vienna in June, the bishops of Salzburg and Innsbruck criticized it as a “disrespectful caricature of the Mass”.
The Austrian artist has previously said her opera was designed to explore the similarities between conservative institutions and queer communities and BDSM subcultures rather than mock the church.
“We once again urge all viewers to read the warnings carefully to know what to expect,” Ebling told the Stuttgarter Nachrichten newspaper . Visitors to the adults-only show were warned in advance about a long list of scenes featuring loud noises, explicit sexual acts and sexual violence.
“If you have any questions, talk to visitor services. And if you get nervous while viewing, you can avoid looking,” Ebling adds.
Reports of medical treatment in the auditorium do not appear to have caused any commercial damage to Holzinger’s Sancta. All five remaining performances at the Stuttgart State Opera, as well as two performances at Berlin’s Volksbuhne in November, are sold out.
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