Stuttgart. Real blood and sex: That was too much for the audience at the Stuttgart State Opera. 18 people had to be treated, many for nausea.
Despite an age rating of 18 and over and bold warnings, a current revealing and bloody opera performance in Stuttgart is leaving its mark on more sensitive visitors. During the first two performances of Florentina Holzinger’s “Sancta,” the visitor service looked after a total of 18 people, some of whom complained of nausea, said State Opera spokesman Sebastian Ebling. In three cases a doctor had to be called in. Previously the “Stuttgarter Nachrichten” and the “Stuttgarter Zeitung” reported.
Holzinger has been causing a stir in the theater world for years with her works, in which she radically and freely stages female bodies, incorporates painful stunts and doesn’t shy away from trash. In “Sancta” she brings lesbian love scenes to the stage with provocative clarity, ridicules Christian rituals and denounces the sexual oppression of women.
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The State Opera also informs that spirituality, sexuality, but also criticism of religion and a critical view of religious and social violence are the focus of the performances. “Exploring boundaries and crossing them with pleasure has always been a central task of art,” the opera quotes its artistic director Viktor Schoner as saying.
Opera house expressly warns against blood and violence
The house warns on its Homepage but also expressly that the performance of the scandal-ridden Austrian performance artist shows explicit sexual acts as well as depictions and descriptions of sexual violence. Real blood as well as fake blood, piercings and a wound can also be seen. Strobe effects, volume and incense would also be used.
The opera recommends the performance to audiences who are “daringly looking for new theater experiences,” as it says on its homepage. However, in addition to the use of some theatrical means, performance art is “not fake, but real,” said Ebling. In the case of the sexual violence shown in “Sancta”, the house explicitly warns against retraumatization.
