18 operagoers need medical treatment after lesbian Hindemith opera
OperaFlorentina Holzinger’s Stuttgart production of Hindemith’s Sancta Susanna has hit the British tabloids after audience members complained of sickness and fainting at the sight of rollerskating naked nuns and an actor pulling down Jesus Christ’s loincloth on the cross.
In an earlier scene, Jesus spanks a nun’s naked bottom.
A representative of the opera company said those who suffered adverse symptoms were sitting in the front rows.
Holzinger is a notorious Austrian audience shocker, who gave her production a first run in remote Schwerin four months ago. Stuttgart’s state opera restricted its production to over-18s.
The Daily Mail has run riot today The Telegraph is following up. Hindemith has not been talked about this much this century.
That’s the best laugh I’ve had all day. Thanks Norman!
I was going to make this exact same comment.
Much fun no doubt, but what has it got to do with the music?!
…and people pay to see this????
The Daily Mail is under the impression that Stuttgart is in Austria!
An Austrian director!
Like, “Austria, Earth”?!
Yes. But the singing?
…the singing from Caroline Melzer, Andrea Baker and Emma Rothmann in the opera was fantastic. And some of the rock/metal vocalism from the cast members was excellent too. So, good singing yes!
at least with the production
like this i would not fall asleep.
And please bear in mind that it’s a rather short opera, like 15 or 20 minutes. And they’ve been able to put so much action into it!
Oh please, they were probably simply shocked they no longer have to hide behind vpn when watching adult films to enjoy such things.
These woke crowds with their delicate sensitivities. It’s pathetic how they must constantly be kept sheltered from the real world.
More likely they were being treated for wrist injuries…:)
your real world.
not theirs.
there is a difference
Exactly. David Daniels kept joking that modern opera productions had much in common with his domestic circumstances until he ended up in prison.
Hilarious that you think it’s the “woke” who have an issue with this!
I sense a potential sequel: “Nun Butt: The Lonely Heart.”
Keeping abreast with the zeitgeist. Just when 2 are never enough.
With so many smut parlors having been closed down due to the Covid pandemic, one only needs to attend the opera to get their much delayed fix of good-old voyeurism. Where’s the ticket office? . . . Actually, I like Hindemith’s earlier compositions.
Sounds like a prime-time TV show in Berlin. One wonders what these audience members thought they were going to get.
Agree. The other two operas (“Mörder, Hoffnung des Frauen” and “Das Nusch-Nuschi”) that make Hindemith’s expressionist trilogy are worth a listen. Cardillac is also one of my favorite operas from him.
I once saw a production of Macbeth that was staged as BDSM and set in a dungeon. At least the actors had enough sense to go to the gym before opening.
Anyone who looks at such rubbish that bears the name “culture” has themselves to blame and gets what they deserve – and the opera makes a fine profit from it. A minority determines what is “cultural” in Germany and that couldn’t be crazier – it is unfavorable “only” for this minority that the majority is increasingly starting to defend itself no matter what and larger parts of the population are not afraid of voting for a right-wing extremist party. At some point you get what you deserve.
I read that the party leaders of the AfD flocked to the production to get inspired about the society they want to build after the revolution they prepare.
To get it straight: except for the full frontal nudity, there’s little in this production (which I haven’t seen) that isn’t in Hindemith’s libretto, including the scene with the loincloth. It’s one of his most beautiful scores.
Didn’t these audience members read the reviews first? What did they expect?
What’s against rollerskating naked nuns? It shows that these religious people go with the times!
Sally
I never knew that Hindemith was a Lesbian. The things you learn on this site!
He was a lesbian nun but disguised herself all of his life as a bald Germanic modern composer, otherwise her music would never be taken seriously.
It’s time to stop subventioning those kind of productions / theaters. If the theaters would have to finance themselves instead of getting millions of Euros from the public for productions which are attended by just a few hundred people of which most of them boo after the performance, they would do stage productions for the audience and not for the self-fulfilllment of egocentric directors.
The production sold out both in Stuttgart and its November run at Berlin’s Volksbühne.
“Lesbian Hindemith Opera” is the name of my new metal band, thanks.
On the other hand, I’m glad to see that they’re wearing hard hats, in that obviously tricky scene.
Maybe Peter Gelb will import this to the Met. It’s sure to sell tickets in New York City.
There’s a production in Los Angeles in a few weeks. Not this one. At least it may be closer to the musical length — which is under half an hour.
Looks like a feeble attempt to show something more disgusting than the Paris Olympics opening and closing ceremonies.
Now do the same to Islam and Muhammad
Let’s see how brave the directors would be
Hurry! Somebody alert Peter Gelb!!! This is a Met-must!
The lesbians are probably more satisfied, than the viola players. Two fat fingers, way up. Roger Ebert preferred to rate based upon thumbs. Sorry.
“those who suffered adverse symptoms were sitting in the front rows.”
ROTFL.
Hey boomers, if you’re going to splurge on front row tickets so you can see better naked nuns being spanked, make sure your heart can handle it!
By the way, for historical accuracy, the man Jesus of Nazareth did not have a loin cloth on the cross, he was already stripped naked by the Roman soldiers.
You say “Hindemith has not been talked about this much this century.” Should that have been prefaced by ‘IMHO’ or is it a proven fact?
I’ve now read comments in several papers about this production. I don’t get the impression anyone is talking about, or even thinking about, Hindemith at all.
This is actually quite interesting musically, as is much of Hindemith’s music of that period. But I have yet to read a musical review of the production. The music is not of three hours’ duration, so I have no idea what is going on for two and a half hours of the programme.
The other 2 1/2 hours are dedicated to calm down the audience’s shattered nerves with drinks, cooling fans and psychiatric support.
I look forward to Holzinger commissioning a similarly avant-garde opera about Muhammad and his disciples and maybe his 9 year-old wife Aisha, given Hollywood trends I’m sure it’ll be right up their alley. Let’s see how committed to subversiveness they really are or do they just enjoy mocking Christians?
Seems like we are between a rock and a hard place these days- one minute we have woke box ticking nonsense, so beige, al afraid to offend and so ‘correct’ the work ends up not having a pulse [never mind a brain]; the next minute- shock horror- naked nuns, garage attendants & piles of mud & the likes of it. Audiences are fed up. Whatever happened to an interesting story, decently told, with humanity and insight?
Social media.
I actually think Gelb should bring this to the Met. The scandal would be all over the US media. Except it’s really just every trite cliche in Regietheater in twenty minutes.
Even Hindemith disavowed this work.
Everyone who’s so shocked about this does realize that all of this action is in the opera itself, and isn’t the stage director’s mad interpretation, right?
From Wikipedia:
“The opera opens in a convent at night, the protagonist, Susanna, lying in prayer in front of an altar. She is approached by a number of figures, the most prominent of whom is Sister Clementia, who states that Susanna is sick, and “scarcely live[s] on this earth any longer”. The dialogue is underpinned by a high pedal in the organ, and in conjunction with conventionally extra-musical sounds such as that of belfry bells.
Susanna finds herself increasingly seduced and overpowered, initially by the sweet scents and sounds entering through the chapel window, but soon by the physical presence of her maid-servant, and her lover. Following a Latin invocation of Satan by Susanna, she is cautioned by Sister Clementia, with the tale of a nun, Sister Beata, who gave in to her erotic fantasies, and as a punishment was bricked up behind the altar. Susanna, no longer capable of abstaining, discards her veil, rips the loin cloth from the crucifix in front of her, and demands such punishment from the nuns, who have now congregated around her.”
This write-up is possibly misleading. I don’t think people were fainting at the sight of roller-skating nuns, Jesus Christ’s loincloth being pulled down, or his bottom being spanked. According to the Guardian, the nausea may have been more induced by “a performance that included live piercing, unsimulated sexual intercourse and copious amounts of fake and real blood.”
The audience members were warned ahead of time.
I don’t know Holzinger’s work and cannot comment on something I haven’t seen. The work probably exists somewhere on the plane of Pasolini’s Salo, or maybe even Ken Russell’s The Devils wherein I wonder whether one is able to think or ruminate upon any actual statements or points being made, or if the initial shock of the brutality renders the audience incapable of parsing out any deeper meaning.
I pray for all those who like me and JK Rowling, must live among these followers of beelzebub. I pray for them as well may God help them to see His Light and follow accordingly. May they choose the narrow way and seek salvation.
This is not art. The world is turning upside down..and people wonder why theatres and opera houses are not selling tickets anymore. well this is a prime example
The production is sold out both in Stuttgart and Berlin… Perhaps what opera houses need to do is actually be bold and program more works like these if they want to survive in the long run… There’s way too many classic productions of La Bohème worldwide on the other hand.