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When Florentina Holzinger\u2019s opera Sancta<\/em> was staged in Stuttgart recently<\/a><\/strong>, chaos ensued. Based on Hindemith\u2019s 1921 opera Sancta Susanna<\/em>, Holzinger\u2019s new work featured unsimulated lesbian sex, naked roller-skating nuns and real blood, triggering outrage. Staff at Staatsoper\u00a0Stuttgart reported that no fewer than 18 audience members had to be offered medical assistance for nausea and shock during the first two performances.<\/p> Holzinger herself has something of a reputation as an enfant terrible<\/em>, but shocking scenes at the opera are nothing new. Right from the birth of the artform<\/a><\/strong> at the beginning of the 17th century, opera has had the power to disturb, disgust, terrify and unnerve in equal measure. Here are six of the best examples.<\/p> Any opera that involves characters selling their souls to the Devil is likely to be a little unsettling, and Carl Maria von Weber<\/a><\/strong> takes this sinister theme to the max in the famous \u2018Wolf\u2019s Glen Scene\u2019 in Act II of Der Freisch\u00fctz<\/em> from 1821. Tolling bells and hooting owls introduce us to the mysterious and moonlit craggy glen that is the location for a midnight meeting between Kaspar, who has already done his dark Demonic deal, and Max, who is being unwittingly tricked by Kaspar into doing so.<\/p>
Scariest moments in opera<\/h2>
Weber Der Freisch\u00fctz<\/em> (1821)<\/h3>