Naked nuns and mutilation at German opera leave audience members ill

18 audience members at Stuttgart’s state opera fell ill after performances of Florentina Holzinger’s ‘Sancta’, which features live piercing and unsimulated sex.

In 1921, German composer Paul Hindemith sought to debut his one-act opera Sancta Susanna, which explores a nunnery’s descent into sexual frenzy, at the prestigious Stuttgart Opera.
But outrage over its allegedly blasphemous text, which one critic at the time called a “desecration of our cultural institutions”, forced the premiere to be postponed until the following year at the Oper Frankfurt.
Now, over a century later, Stuttgart’s State Opera has brought a radical-feminist reinterpretation of Hindemith’s work to life with Sancta, directed by the avant-garde choreographer Florentina Holzinger.
And so far, its proven to be anything but your typical night at the opera…
There have been only two performances since its Stuttgart premiere on 5 October, but 18 theatregoers have reportedly required medical treatment for severe nausea following the show.
“On Saturday we had eight and on Sunday we had 10 people who had to be looked after by our visitor service,” the opera’s spokesperson, Sebastian Ebling, told the newspaper Stuttgarter Zeitung. Ebling added that three of those who required assistance were feeling so unwell that a doctor had to be called.
In short, the opera is nearly three-hours of uninterrupted batshit craziness.
On stage, naked nuns roller skate around on a movable half-pipe, while a bouldering wall of crucified naked bodies dripping blood looms in the background. To add to this chaos, there are live piercings, crucifix swallowing acts, unsimulated sex scenes and a sprinkle of spanking thrown in for good measure.
One particularly unforgettable moment sees an actress with dwarfism dressed as the Pope, being spun around by a robotic arm, while another features an actress belting out Eminem tracks while dressed as Jesus (because why not?).
For a taste of the mayhem, please check out this trailer.
As you can probably guess, the opera is not for everyone’s taste. Sancta premiered earlier this year at the Mecklenburg State Theatre in Schwerin, where it received significant backlash from Catholic leaders.
Archbishop of Salzburg Franz Lackner described the show as “seriously offensive to believers’ religious feelings and convictions”.
The opera’s Austrian choreographer Holzinger has made a name for herself, with past productions that have incorporated elements of pain, nudity, body horror, acrobatics, sword-swallowers and Japanese bondage artists.
“This is an opera about the breaking forth of the repressed female libido, so we decided to have a lot of fun,” the 38-year-old dancer told The Guardian earlier this year.
Despite reports of more than a dozen attendees falling ill, all five remaining shows at the Stuttgart state opera, as well as two performances at Berlin’s Volksbühne in November, have completely sold out.
For those with tickets and who still feel brave enough to attend, good luck! We recommend bringing a bucket.