Scandal at the Festwochen

Concertmaster fainted during “Sancta”

Nuns in distress: "Sancta" at the Wiener Festwochen(Bild: Wiener festwochen / Nicole-Marianna-Wytyczak)

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 Mecklenburgische Staatskapelle Schwerin? Florentina Holzinger's working through of the Catholic Church, based on Hindemith's short opera "Sancta Susanna", is certainly not easy on the audience.

Hard, naked, brutal
Hard, naked, brutal, sexually revealing, the Viennese choreographer has naked female performers, some with nuns' costumes on their heads, performing gymnastics through the backdrop and running on roller skates. One hangs upside down in a giant bell and acts as a clapper, while the soprano sings her ecstasy out of her body as a nun and two naked performers perform love scenes on a cross made of neon tubes above.

The bells ring harshly in "Sancta".(Bild: Wiener festwochen / Nicole-Marianna-Wytyczak)

Close-up of Christ's wound
One of the hardest moments occurs in the middle of the two-and-a-half-hour performance - an allusion to Christ's wound. One actress cuts a piece of skin from the side of another lying in front of her. A third is filming in close-up. The images are projected in close-up onto panels at the side of the stage and the orchestra pit in front of it. We see how a lentil-shaped piece is slowly cut out of the skin and lifted off with tweezers. Finally, another puts her finger in the wound.

Concertmaster collapses - injured
This time, however, it was over. The performers on stage fell silent and looked irritably into the orchestra pit. There was also unrest in the audience, some people descended into the pit, and finally a paramedic. Florentina Holzinger, who was also playing, then picked up a hand-held microphone and stepped in front of the audience. She explained that the concertmaster had collapsed and had suffered a wound. She then asked the conductor whether it would be possible to continue playing without her. He agreed. The curtain then fell and the audience was sent into a 15-minute break.

Nuns roll naked.(Bild: Wiener festwochen / Nicole-Marianna-Wytyczak)

Warning on the website
An involuntary interruption that some visitors even thought was planned. It's a good thing that the Festival Weeks have a corresponding warning on their website. Also for the three reprises that are still scheduled and have long since sold out: "From 18 years. The performance contains self-harming acts, sexual acts and depictions and descriptions of (sexual) violence. The performance uses strobe effects, blood and needles."