Daily Mail: People faint at opera.
Its provocative scenes left theatre goers reeling, with 18 suffering with nausea and shock and requiring assistance over the first two performances. In three cases, a doctor even had to be called.
This report is surprising, because it’s assumed that audiences are more savvy or cynical now. Nobody was coerced or tricked into attending this opera. Decades ago, my nephew Brian and I attended a machine gun shoot in Knob Creek, Kentucky. When the “Commence Fire” command was given, the amount of firepower unleashed from the firing line was astounding. One might swoon if the title of the event wasn’t so clear. It was great fun.
Sancta Susanna by composer Paul Hindemith caused a scandal back in 1921, with outraged critics labelling the one-act opera, which tells the story of a suppressed nun discovering her sexuality, too blasphemous to be shown.
The recent opera was an adaptation of an opera from a hundred years ago. Any attendee should have been prepared for an aggressive display of degeneracy.
Extreme performance artist Florentina Holzinger is behind the astonishing adaptation, which sees its all-female cast playing nuns who strip off their habits throughout the ‘sensual, poetic and wild’ show.
Filthy nuns is an old trope, done to death by Italian pornographers in the 1970’s.
The most bizarre scenes include an actress with dwarfism dressed as the Pope being raised up into the air and spun around by a robotic arm, while another performs Eminem songs dressed as Jesus.
A dwarf pope fastened to the end of a robotic arm does sound astonishing. I’d quite like to see that.
Yep, that is about what I imagined. When I was at Ohio State, I took an engineering course to program industrial robots. While programming the Cincinnati Milacron T3, I thought of many good uses for the robot, but nothing like this. Having a person within the operating envelope of the robot would have violated safety protocols. This looks like it may be a Kuka KR model, but the article doesn’t say.
A woman performing an Eminem song while dressed as Jesus doesn’t sound astonishing. Jesus dressed in an unremarkable fashion, like a Jedi or any traveler in the Levant. Wearing a crucifix would be an anachronism.
‘Bach meets metal, the Weather Girls meet Rachmaninoff – and naked nuns meet roller skates,’ is how the Stuttgart State Opera website summarises the performance.
If they are naked, you don’t know they are nuns. Sure, by context, but the general impressions is that they are sporting women with an ill-advised disregard for personal safety. The skater on the right seems unsteady, with her arms swinging. Neither one wears a helmet. We can’t see either bum, but road-rash would be a concern.
In the case of the sexual violence shown, the theatre issues explicit trigger warnings, saying some may be left in ‘discomfort’ or even ‘traumatised’ by the performance.
Trigger warnings are patronizing and disrespectful to the audience. There are trigger warnings on movies, TV shows, Youtube videos and news reports warning that guns, divorce, mental illness or smoking cigarettes will be addressed. Research says that trigger warnings are useless.
In 1931, when Frankenstein showed in theaters, a friendly warning was provided prior to the showing.
“It may shock you. It might even horrify you. So if any of you feel that you do not care to subject your nerves to such a strain, now is your chance to, uh… Well, we’ve warned you.”
That was a marketing gimmick that was popular for decades. The studios would generate news reports about people fainting at the shocking scenes. Audiences were enticed by the opportunity to test their metal.
Joe Rogan likes to say that, “The hardest thing a person has ever done, is the hardest thing they’ve ever done.”
By that, he means that if a person has led a blessed or pampered life with no challenges, then a minor inconvenience is a legitimate challenge to that person. That person is weak and unprepared for life.
Completely different, but the same, statement was made by JFK talking about the goal of landing on the Moon. “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard,…”
Overcoming physical, emotional or mental challenges makes a person powerful. On the Teacher Reddit I frequent, a young person claims to have PTSD from teaching at an elementary school for two months. In the South, they would say, “Well, bless your heart.”
People don’t seem to do hard things to make themselves stronger. Maybe they never did. For the Greatest Generation, life could be hard, so people had no choice but to get stronger. Many Boomers, certainly later Boomers like me, found that life wasn’t so hard, but it could be inconvenient and boring. For Millennials and Gen Z, the internet has eliminated inconvenience and boredom. Actual challenges are rare, unless a person seeks them out. It doesn’t seem like many want to do that.
An opera spokesman said those affected were in the rows near the stage, and would have known ‘what they are letting themselves in for.’
The opera company recommends the performance to viewers who are ‘daringly looking for new theatrical experiences.’
I think that’s right. I’m not big on opera, but would enjoy Bizet’s Carmen and like to think I’d enjoy Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, but it’s 15 hours long. Maybe if it was at one of those theaters with comfortable seats, where you can have pizza and beer. If I could take a nap or leave for a little while, I wouldn’t mind it.
This nunsploitation opera is not for me, but there are some intriguing elements beyond the robot-dwarf hybrid.
There is much to be said for an opera with a climbing wall and robotic stripper pole. I suppose those are all nuns, and I’d probably miss the message of the opera, but the spectacle might make up for it.