Eighteen people needed medical attention during an opera that features nuns, sex scenes, mutilation, and real blood.
Florentina Holzinger’s Sancta also includes naked roller-skating nuns and a depiction of a wall of crucified naked bodies.
During performances on 5 and 6 October, 18 people needed medical attention from staff, a spokesperson for Stuttgart’s state opera, where it was hosted, told Sky News.
A few of them suffered from nausea during the boundary-pushing show.
Pic: Matthias Baus/Stuttgart State Opera
One instance took place before the show even started, and in three instances, an ambulance was called to the venue.
Despite this, opera-goers seemed to enjoy the performance and applauded afterwards.
The spokesperson said: “Of course, we highly value the well-being of our audience.
“That is why our staff is always excellently prepared for these kind of incidents, which happen during other performances too, albeit in smaller numbers.
“By all means, we had informed our audience about sensitive content before the performances.
“The great applause after indicates, that the vast majority of people knew what the performance was about.”
Through the almost three-hour performance, the spokesperson said there were two scenes, lasting only a few minutes, that “might be hard to watch”.
One scene was described as having a “small piece of flesh” cut from the back of one of the performers, and second where two other performers were “pierced together” to attach ropes and lift them up.
They also highlighted certain light effects throughout which could have also been responsible for some incidents.
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Austrian choreographer Ms Holzinger, 38, is known for her boundary-pushing performances with her all-female casts often performing partly, or fully naked, and previous shows have featured tattooing, masturbating, and action paintings with blood and fresh excrement, The Guardian reported.
In an interview with the same outlet earlier this year, she said: “Good technique in dance to me is not just someone who can do a perfect tendu [a type of dance move], but also someone who can urinate on cue.”
Sancta is based on the controversial 1920s opera Sancta Susanna – the story of a nun who represses her own desires.
Ms Holzinger’s show is advertised as for people aged 18 and over and despite the incidents, further shows in Stuggart and Berlin have since reportedly sold out.
In a statement put out on her personal social media on Friday evening, Ms Holzinger said the idea behind the show, the church’s representation of women and treatment and influence on the female body, “expressly points to explicit content.”
She accused media outlets of not contextualising her work and said that it dealt with “real and complex issues” that many of the audience related with.
Ms Holzinger also said that she had since had to deal with “threats of violence and hate speech” since the coverage.
“If you don’t want to see it, don’t come,” she added.
