Director breaks silence after explicit opera left audience members needing medical treatment as she hits out at critics

The choreographer behind the divisive opera Sancta has hit back at critics after his graphic sex scenes and bloody stunts made viewers uncomfortable, with 18 people needing medical treatment.

Florentina Holzinger, 38, directed and performed in the show, which is described as a “feminist mass” and features nude roller-skating nuns and provocative depictions of Jesus and the Pope.

Christians have branded the production “blasphemous” and “offensive”, and reports emerged yesterday of audience members suffering from nausea and shock at two of the show’s performances in Stuttgart, Germany, last week.

On Instagram, Holzinger suggested that attendees should have known what they were getting into, telling objectors: “If you don’t want to see it, don’t come.”

He added that he had received severe and unacceptable backlash for the show, criticizing trolls he called “dogmatists” for leaving hateful and threatening comments on his page.

Florentina Holzinger, 38, directed and performed in the show, described as a “feminist mass”

Sancta tells the story of a repressed nun who discovers her sexuality. At one point he prays while watching two lovers in the garden of his convent

In one scene, tattooed nude performers climb over a table, drinking wine and singing, while another raises a sword in the shape of a crucifix and thrusts it down their throat.

Holzinger is famous throughout the German-speaking world for her boundary-pushing works, which often involve the staging of naked female bodies and dangerous stunts, and Sancta was no exception.

“The stage show Sancta addresses the church’s image of women and examines the mechanisms of the church’s centuries-old treatment and influence on women’s bodies and sexuality,” Holzinger said on Instagram.

“The performance expressly refers to explicit content,” he continued, apparently referring to the numerous trigger warnings on the Stuttgart State Opera’s website.

He added defiantly: “Anyone who cannot stand depictions of violence should not go to a show that is inspired by the Catholic Church.”

Detailing the online abuse she’s received amid the fallout from the show, Holzinger also said in her statement: “The fact that we’ve had to deal with threats of violence and hate speech from bigots and bigots is part of the problem and it’s why I felt it was so important to do this show in the first place.’

While it has received backlash from many quarters, Sancta has also received rave reviews from German critics, hailed by some as the latest groundbreaking work from an award-winning artist.

Performers wearing a nun’s veil skating on a half pipe during part of the performance

The actor who plays Jesus is said to perform Eminem-inspired songs in the modern opera

There is nudity throughout the performance, which has an age restriction for attendees

‘A scandal? No, joy. An overwhelming joy,” wrote one reviewer after seeing the show in Schwerin.

“Holzinger is directing a musical theater (production) for the first time, and the result is so clever, so funny, so incredibly well-crafted that you’re truly amazed.”

The female cast play religious and religious figures who shed their habits throughout the “sensual, poetic and wild” show.

They perform dangerous stunts throughout, with actresses swallowing swords, having hooks stuck into their flesh and hanging from them, and piercings and injuries occurring live on stage.

Real and fake blood were also featured, while the actresses engaged in non-simulated sexual acts.

A female Pope appears in the performance, which critics say “dissects” Catholicism

At the opera, a nun warns Susanna with an old story about the Blessed nun, who had desired the Savior on the cross and was walled up alive for it.

The opera company says on its website that the stage art is “not fake, but real”, but it was still too much for some, with three of those requiring medical attention needing to be seen by a doctor .

But instead of deterring would-be theatre-goers, 100,000 people rushed to click on the main page of the Stuttgart Opera House on Wednesday evening.

Bild reports that only 20,000 went through, and tickets for the remaining performances sold out quickly.

Sancta is based on a 1921 opera, Sancta Susanna, which caused a scandal at the time it was deemed too blasphemous to be shown in Stuttgart.