EIGHTEEN People Were Treated For Severe Nausea After Watching A German Opera Featuring Rollerskating Nuns That Included Sexual Intercourse, Blood, And Live Piercings

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The Guardian- Eighteen theatregoers at Stuttgart’s state opera required medical treatment for severe nausea over the weekend after watching a performance that included live piercing, unsimulated sexual intercourse and copious amounts of fake and real blood. “On Saturday we had eight and on Sunday we had 10 people who had to be looked after by our visitor service,” said the opera’s spokesperson, Sebastian Ebling, about the two performances of Sancta, a work by the Austrian choreographer Florentina Holzinger. A doctor had been called in for treatment in three instances, he added.

Holzinger, 38, is known for freewheeling performances that blur the line between dance theatre and vaudeville. Her all-female cast typically performs partially or fully naked, and previous shows have included live sword-swallowing, tattooing, masturbation and action paintings with blood and fresh excrement.

I'll be honest, growing up during the rise of the internet and almost a decade of working at Barstool has numbed my soul to the point where there is very little that can actually shock me anymore. Which is why I would like to thank Florentina Holzinger for creating this crazy ass opera for actually making me feel something while reading this story.

Not only that, I was kinda floored to learn that an opera isn't just a fancy play full of musicals headlined by someone singing that is likely the size of me. I figured plays or even musicals could get freaky as fuck. Yet I thought operas were too high society for sex and piercings (placed God knows where) for even the weirdest drama kids to let their freak flag fly then call it opera.

That is clearly not the case for an opera by Florentina Holzinger, which makes a lot more sense when you read quotes like this:

“Good technique in dance to me is not just someone who can do a perfect tendu, but also someone who can urinate on cue,” Holzinger told the Guardian in an interview earlier this year.

Look, I've never been much into the-ay-ter or the arts, as I'm sure the creators of Sancta call it. But that just sounds crazy to me. You know who else it probably sounded crazy to? The EIGHTEEN people that got sick from simply watching perform on stage. I'm sure the shock and awe that comes with watching a show that includes sex and blood can make people queasy. But I'm gonna guess that the smell of a theater hosting something like that could have you reaching for some Pepto even before you account for the sweaty rollerskating nuns. 

The only real defense I have for the opera's creators is that Germany is one of those places where you can see weird shit pretty regularly if that's your thing. I'm not saying people should blindly roll into an opera house expecting sex and blood being thrown into their eyeballs. But I bet it wouldn't be the first time a chunk of the audience has seen all of that on a stage. 

Obligatory throwback blog: