MUNICH, Germany — A night at the opera conjures images of elegant outfits and spectacular vocals. But at one German opera house, 18 audience members required medical treatment after watching recent performances featuring explicit lesbian sex scenes, piercing, and lots of blood.
The 18 individuals had to be attended by visitor services trained in first aid after feeling sick or dizzy, with some of them falling unconscious after viewing, Sebastian Ebling, spokesman for the Stuttgart State Opera in southwest Germany, told NBC News. Three were taken care of by an an emergency doctor, he added.
The opera, Sancta, premiered at the Mecklenburg state theatre in Schwerin in May. It was based on the controversial 1920s opera Sancta Susanna, whose story follows a nun facing her repressed desires.
The new version of Sancta, directed by Austrian choreographer Florentina Holzinger, shows naked nuns roller-skating on a half-pipe and a wall of crucified unclothed bodies.
Ebling said he was not aware of any of the audience specifically complaining about the performance, but the theatre has received a lot of criticism via social media and e-mail. Most of these critics likely did not see the performance themselves, he said.
He confirmed that the performance included explicit lesbian sexual acts as well as two cases of self-harm, including piercing.
"These two scenes could have been the trigger, but also possibly the lighting effects," he said. “Our visitor services team had the situation under control at all times."
Ebling said the theatre had warned of the scenes, including during the ticket purchasing process. The show says it is for people aged 18 and over.
"Additional performances will take place as planned," Ebling said, adding that the well-being of viewers is important to them and they were being professionally cared for.
Christian Hermes, the city dean for the Stuttgart catholic church, said he had received “really worrying feedback” since the opera's Oct. 5 premiere. The opera celebrates "naive, not to say cheesy, sexual-spiritual dreams of redemption," he told Catholic news agency KNA.
"Employees and visitors are brutally led to and beyond the limits of what is aesthetically and psychologically tolerable," he said, adding that people's mental health was "deliberately being played with."
Hermes said he nonetheless had "respect for the artistic radicalism" of Sancta's director, Holzinger.
Hermes' office directed NBC News to an Instagram post after he met with Holzinger last week.
"Holzinger’s performance is scandalous for some. But isn’t there a scandal where religion turns into violence, where bodies and souls are punished in the madness of perfection, where power and charisma are abused," Hermes was quoted as saying in the post.
"Holzinger literally puts her finger in the wound, and not just for the church.”
Carlo Angerer reported from Munich, Andy Eckardt reported from Mainz and Peter Guo from Hong Kong.
