Opera performance featuring explicit lesbian sex and naked roller-skating nuns outrages Church

An opera performance of Sancta Susanna, which features explicit lesbian sex and naked roller-skating, has outraged members of the Church.

Warning: Mentions of injuries, sex, and depictions of nudity.

It might not be your typical night at the opera. Still, the adaptation of the opera Sancta Susanna by performance artist Florentina Holzinger reportedly left 18 audience members requiring medical treatment after sitting through the explicit queer sex scenes and witnessing real and fake blood and injuries on stage.

The opera, originally by composer Paul Hindemith, was subjected to backlash in 1921 for being “too blasphemous to be shown”. It tells the story of a suppressed nun who discovers her sexuality. 

The original opera was meant to premiere at the Stuttgart Opera in Germany but was cancelled. Over 100 years later, the new rendition was performed in the same city of Stuttgart on 5 October while pushing the boundaries of LGBTQ+ themes and art to new heights in a “radical vision of the Holy Mass”. 

The performance – which reportedly caused 18 audience members to suffer from nausea and shock and required medical assistance over its first two performances – has sparked outrage among members of the Church in the country. 

The opera – with an age rating of 18 and over – features an all-woman cast portraying nuns, who rip off their habits amid the “sensual, poetic and wild” performance. One scene sees an actress dressed as the Pope and being raised and spun around via a robotic arm, and another scene sees an actress singing tracks by Eminem while portraying Jesus.

The show’s main character Susanna explores her sexuality by pulling down Christ’s loincloth on the crucifix before she disturbingly has sex with the icon. Other performers on stage are naked and hang out of bells, or climb rock-climbing walls with only a harness. 

Another scene sees a performer swallowing a sword crucifix down her throat, while a further scene depicts Jesus spanking a half-naked nun. 

But perhaps the most disturbing moment is a scene symbolising the Eucharist or the body of Christ. A performer has a piece of skin cut from her side before being “grilled medium rare”, according to local newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. 

Archbishop of Salzburg Franz Lackner said the opera crossed the line of artistic expression and “seriously offended believers’ religious feelings and convictions”. 

Meanwhile, Austrian theology professor Jan-Heiner Tück wrote in the Catholic magazine Communio that Holzinger’s “fixation” on nuns and their sexuality is “an old fad”. 

However, the opera, which is set to be shown in Berlin next month, has also been praised for its “overwhelming joy”. 

“Holzinger is directing a musical theater for the first time, and the result is so clever, so funny, so incredibly well put together that you are truly astonished,” one reviewer wrote.

Florentina Holzinger’s depiction of Sancta Susanna has performances until 3 November at Staatsoper Stuttgart in Germany.