The Catholic Herald

A radical-feminist opera performance has left 18 audience members needing medical treatment for shock and nausea at the Stuttgart Opera in Germany. Performed at one of Europe’s foremost opera houses, the Sancta Susanna ("Saint Susanna") opera has an age restriction of 18 and includes explicit lesbian sex scenes, real blood and injuries, naked roller-skating nuns and much more, <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13944981/Explicit-lesbian-sex-scenes-OPERA-leave-18-audience-members-requiring-medical-treatment-Graphic-features-naked-nuns-roller-skates-Christ-having-loincloth-whipped-off.html">reports</a> the Daily Mail (a warning: the Mail article contains images that some Herald readers may find offensive/upsetting – as does the <a href="https://www.staatsoper-stuttgart.de/spielplan/a-z/sancta/">trailer</a> on the Stuttgart State Opera website). The first two performances by its all-female cast were responsible for the 18 audience members who required assistance for shock and nausea, while in three of those cases, a doctor had to be called. Written by composer Paul Hindemith in 1921, the opera tells the story of a "suppressed nun discovering her sexuality". At the time, it was deemed too blasphemous to be shown and its premiere at the Stuttgart Opera was cancelled. More than 100 years later, it has been staged in the city for the first time “with the shock factor amped up to dizzying new heights in what its creators call a 'radical vision of the Holy Mass',” says the Mail. It notes that the “most bizarre scenes include an actress with dwarfism dressed as the Pope being raised up into the air and spun around by a robotic arm, while another performs Eminem songs dressed as Jesus”. In one scene, as tattooed nude performers clamber over a table, drinking wine and singing, a female sword swallower pushes a sword in the shape of a cross down her throat. At one point a troupe sing the Kyrie Eleison. The opera company suggests that the almost three-hour show, which has no break, will appeal to "viewers who are daringly looking for new theatrical experiences". The Stuttgart State Opera website summarises the performance as "Bach meets metal, the Weather Girls meet Rachmaninoff – and naked nuns meet roller skates," according to the Mail. Among a variety of unpleasant and offensive scenes, especially for Catholics, according to the Mail the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reports that at one point a piece of skin is cut from a performer's side and grilled to "illustrate the Eucharist". “Exploring boundaries and crossing them with pleasure has always been a central task of art,”  the opera’s artistic director Viktor Schoner is quoted as saying in the Mail. Florentina Holzinger, the 38-year-old choreographer behind the show, grew up in predominantly Roman Catholic Austria and was baptised and confirmed as a child, but "formally left the Catholic [C]hurch as a young adult 'to avoid paying tax'”, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/article/2024/jun/10/bring-on-the-naked-rollerskating-nuns-the-wild-visions-of-florentina-holzinger">reports</a> the Guardian. It notes that in "preparing" for staging Sancta Susanna, Holzinger started attending mass again and discovered it to be “an extremely postmodern experience”. She is quoted as saying: “It’s postmodern in the sense that Catholicism relies on the kind of rituals that people in theatre can only dream of. At its heart, mass is about conveying illusions and describing transformations: bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ. And by giving consent to let these transformation take place, they become real.” Instead of mocking or criticising the Church, the Guardian claims, Sancta Susanna "became an exploration of kinship between a conservative institution and the seemingly ungodly subcultures of BDSM or kink communities". (BDSM is a term used for a variety of sexual practices that include bondage, discipline, dominance, submission and sadism.) It adds: "Above all, [Sancta Susanna] and the traditional Catholic [M]ass share a belief that joy and pain are intimately connected, and those who suffer will find redemption." Addressing the controversial and shocking displays that Holzinger embraces, the Guardian says that, in Holzinger's view, "if pole-dancing, trapeze acts and live sex can make people think about these parallels, then that makes them legitimate dramatic tools". “We want to seduce our audience into thoughtfulness," Holzinger says. "Entertainment is an extremely good way to jog their brains.” Holzinger has been "causing a stir in the theatre world for years for her staging of nude female bodies and shocking stunts", reports the Mail. It notes that her "works are known to trample all over the boundaries of traditional dance" and that "themes include female sexual, physical and social oppression and a 'dissecting' of Catholicism and organised religion". In a New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/28/arts/music/florentina-holzinger-sancta.html">article</a>, Holzinger described Sancta Susanna as her first explicit reckoning with the Church: “Only now, in reflection, do I realise how much that Catholic imprint is inherent in my upbringing,” she says, adding that the Church is a good fit for some of her shows’ previous topics, which she lists as “women, sex, the devil". Reaction to the opera has, as you might expect these days, followed somewhat predictable lines, depending on if you are religiously inclined or not. Writing for Catholic magazine Communio, theology professor Jan-Heiner Tück slammed what he called an “ostentatious lack of imagination" and "simplistic narratives", labelling Holzinger's "fixation" on nuns and sexuality "an old fad", the Mail reports. Tück also notes how today “people have rightly become very sensitive to how minorities are portrayed in the media" and hence: “What should the shrinking number of Catholic religious think of such a spectacle? How do they feel when their freely chosen way of life is ridiculed in this way?” Various critics and reviewers, however, have praised the performance. “A scandal? No, joy. Overwhelming joy," one reviewer reportedly wrote after seeing the show. "Holzinger is directing a musical theatre for the first time, and the result is so clever, so funny, so incredibly well put together that you are truly astonished.” The scenes in Stuttgart follow not long after recent controversy during the Olympics' opening ceremony that drew international condemnation for a <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/bishop-barron-slams-gross-mockery-of-last-supper-and-christian-faith-during-olympic-games-opening-ceremony/?swcfpc=1">parody of the Last Supper</a> and what appeared a blatant anti-Christian endeavour. Admittedly, that all looks pretty tame compared to Sancta Susanna. Comments by Pope Francis recently came to light in which the pontiff describes secularisation as a “complex phenomenon” and how the Church must “confront forms of paganism” within it. The Pope said he didn’t mean a paganism like the one found in the ancient world, explaining: “We do not need a statue of a pagan god to talk about paganism. The very environment, the air we breathe is a gaseous pagan god! And we must preach to this culture in terms of witness, service and faith. And from within we must do it with prayer.” The Mail reports that the opera's organisers have said Sancta Susanna will go on as planned, despite the effect it had on those disturbed audience members, offering reassurances that nausea and fainting are common during theatrical performances. <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/pope-francis-says-church-must-confront-pagan-elements-of-secularism/?swcfpc=1">RELATED: Pope Francis says Church must confront pagan elements of secularism</a> Photo: Scene from 'Sancta Susanna' performance; screenshot from <a href="https://www.staatsoper-stuttgart.de/spielplan/a-z/sancta/">staatsoper-stuttgart.de</a>.

Explicit anti-Catholic opera leaves 18 audience members requiring medical assistance

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