Does art have to bleed? During a violent injury scene in Florentina Holzinger’s hardcore performance “Sancta”, the concertmaster fainted in the orchestra pit and cut himself. The performance in the Vienna Musemsquartier had to be interrupted for fifteen minutes…
Was the scene too much for the concertmaster of the Mecklenburgische Staatskapelle Schwerin? Florentina Holzinger’s treatment of the Catholic Church, based on Hindemith’s short opera “Sancta Susanna”, certainly does not spare the audience.
Hard, naked, brutal
Hard, naked, brutal, sexually revealing: the Viennese choreographer has naked performers, some with nun costumes on their heads, doing gymnastics through the background and running on roller skates. One hangs upside down in a huge bell and acts as a clapper. While the soprano sings her heart out as a nun, two naked performers perform love scenes on a cross of neon tubes above.
Wound of Christ in close-up
One of the most difficult moments occurs in the middle of the two and a half hour performance, an allusion to Christ’s wound. An actor cuts a piece of skin from the side of someone lying in front of her. A third filmed in close-up. The images are projected in close-up on panels on the side of the stage and the orchestra pit in front of it. You see how a lens-shaped piece is slowly cut from the skin and removed with tweezers. Finally, someone else sticks her finger in the wound.
Concertmaster collapses – injured
But then this time it was over. The performers on stage fell silent and looked confused into the orchestra pit. There was also unrest in the crowd, some people went into the ditch, and eventually a medic. Florentina Holzinger, who was playing, then grabbed the handheld microphone and stepped out in front of the audience. She explained that the concertmaster collapsed and suffered a wound. She then asked the conductor if they could continue playing without her. He agreed. Then the curtain fell and the visitors were given a fifteen-minute break.
Warning on the website
An involuntary interruption that some visitors even thought was planned. It’s good that the festival weeks have a corresponding note on their website. Also for the three revivals that are still planned and have long been sold out: “From 18 years. The performance contains self-harming acts, sexual acts as well as images and descriptions of (sexual) violence. The performance uses strobe effects and uses blood and needles.”
Source: Krone
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