After the incendiary dates we had in Schwerin at the Mecklenburgischen Staatstheater and Wiener Festwochen in Vienna, we have 7 dates in at the Staatsoper in Stuttgart, this as well as next month. I will be performing and facilitating hook suspensions as well as doing some cutting. Come out to see me sing and dance!
Tickets are still available
Based on Paul Hindemith’s 1922 short work Sancta Susanna – in which a nun confronts the violent punishment of sexual self-determination – Florentina Holzinger’s SANCTA bridges Bach and Rachmaninoff with metal, noise and contemporary compositions to reclaim the gore of Catholic mass and address the violent history of the Church. Countering the religious discipline and punishment of (female*) sexuality – abortion, homosexuality, sex work, pleasure – SANCTA stages sexual sensations and practices as a pathway to not-only-religious ecstasy. In a quest for magic and transcendence, body artists twist the religious topoi of scarification, penetration, transformation; show magicians propose their take on the Bible’s miracles; the Sistine Chapel turns into a climbing wall, opera into rock musical, God into robot, Jesus Christ into Jesus Christ Superstar. Mass turns into spectacle and, in Florentina Holzinger’s words, real magic needs to happen. Spiderlike and dark, loud and excessive, funny and redemptory, SANCTA is the trigger warning for mass.
Note
We recommend a minimum age of 18 to attend the performance.
Triggerwarning
Please note: Sancta contains
self-injurious acts
blood
needles
strobe lights
explicit depiction or description of physical or sexual violence
Performance from and with:
Saioa Alvarez Ruiz, Andrea Baker, Born In Flamez, Gibrana Cervantes, Renée Copraij, Luz de Luna Duran, Sophie Duncan, Blathin Eckhardt, Fibi Eyewalker, Jasko Fide, Paige A. Flash, Fleshpiece, Evilyn Frantic, Florentina Holzinger, Sara Lancerio, Laura London, Annina Machaz, Malin Nilsson, Xana Novais, Netti Nüganen, otay:onii, Emma Rothmann, Veronica Thompson, Luci Fire Tusk, Cornelia Zink, Sängerinnen des Opernchores des Mecklenburgischen Staatstheaters, Orchester der Komischen Oper (in Berlin)
Direction, choreography & performance:
Florentina Holzinger
Musical direction:
Marit Strindlund
Composition:
Paul Hindemith
Libretto:
August Stramm
Composition & Arrangement:
Johanna Doderer
Composition & supervision of stage music:
Born In Flamez
Composition & Sound Design:
Stefan Schneider
Composer & Production:
Nadine Neven Raihani
Additional composition and arrangement:
Gibrana Cervantes, Josephinex Ashley Hansis, otay:onii, Odette T. Waller
Stage music:
Gibrana Cervantes, Blathin Eckhardt, Paige A. Flash, otay:onii
Choir director Schwerin/Vienna:
Aki Schmitt
Dramaturgy:
Philipp Amelungsen, Fernando Belfiore, Renée Copraij, Miron Hakenbeck, Judith Lebiez, Sara Ostertag, Felix Ritter, Michele Rizzo
Assistant Director:
Xavier Perez
Stage & Costume:
Nikola Knežević
Technical Lead:
Stephan Werner
Technical assistance:
Jan Havers, Emma Juliard, Dörte Wilfrorth
Stunt Coordinator:
Ronny Hornig, Gravity Stunts
Stunt Advisor:
Joe Toedling, Stunt Factory
Robotics:
Zoe Bassi
Lighting Design:
Anne Meeussen, Max Kraußmüller
Video Design:
Maja Čule
Sound engineering:
Olivia Oyama
Sound intern:
Joschka Crusius
Stage assistance:
Christiane Hilmer
Doll making:
Silke von Patay
Production management:
Giulia Messia, Katharina Wallisch, Sarah Parolin
Tour Management:
Moira Garee, Sarah Parolin
A production by Florentina Holzinger/Spirit, neon lobster, Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater and Staatsoper Stuttgart in co-production with Wiener Festwochen | Freie Republik Wien, Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz (in cooperation with Komische Oper Berlin), Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Julidans and Theater Rotterdam
Funded by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation). Funded by the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media), Ammodo, Kulturabteilung der Stadt Wien
With the support of Bundesministerium für Kunst, Kultur, öffentlichen Dienst und Sport, Anna und Manfred Wakolbinger
Support research phase: Goethe-Institut
Thank you to: Caritia Abell, Sebastian Eckermann, Linnea Vogel
Photo/Video: © Nicole Marianna Wytyczak • © Tammo Walter • © Mayra Wallraff