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 herself. The performance on Tuesday evening in Vienna’s Museumsquartier had to be interrupted for 15 minutes…
Was the scene too much for the concertmaster of the Mecklenburg State Orchestra in 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, brutalHard, naked, brutal, sexually revealing, the Viennese choreographer has naked performers, some with nun’s habit on their heads, do gymnastics through the set and roller skate. One hangs upside down in a huge bell and acts as a clapper, while the soprano sings her ecstasy out as a nun, two naked performers perform love scenes on a cross made of neon tubes above.Wound of Christ in close-upOne of the hardest moments occurs in the middle of the two-and-a-half-hour performance, an allusion to the wound of Christ. One performer cuts a piece of skin from the side of another lying in front of her. A third films in close-up. The images are projected in close-up onto panels to the side of the stage and the orchestra pit in front of it. You can see how a lens-shaped piece is slowly cut out of the skin and lifted off with tweezers. Finally, another person puts her finger in the wound.Concertmaster collapses – injuredBut that was the end of it this time. The performers on stage fell silent and looked confusedly into the orchestra pit. There was also unrest in the audience, some people climbed down into the pit, and finally a paramedic. Florentina Holzinger, who was also playing, then grabbed the handheld microphone and stepped in front of the audience. She explained that the concertmaster had collapsed and had injured herself. Then she asked the conductor whether they could continue playing without her. He agreed. Then the curtain fell and the audience was sent on a 15-minute break.Warning on the websiteAn involuntary interruption that some visitors even thought was planned. It’s good that the festival has put a corresponding notice on its website. Also for the three still scheduled, long-sold-out reruns: “Over 18 years of age. The performance contains self-harming acts, sexual acts as well as depictions and descriptions of (sexual) violence. The performance uses strobe effects, as well as blood and needles.”
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