Opera spokesman Johannes Wunderlich emphasized the delay had nothing to do with the recent storm that's surrounded the performance and director Tilmann Knabe.

Instead, Wunderlich said the premiere has been put on hold because singer Ursula Hesse, who plays the part of Dalila, has contracted a virus. Wunderlich said following directions from her doctor, Hesse has been ordered not to sing for three days.

In recent weeks, the opera made national headlines after about half of its 66 choir members stopped coming to rehersals. They complained that under director Knabe, the opera's gang rape scene and bloody machinegun battle were too graphic - and that rehearsals were making them physically unwell.

The original singer cast for the Dalila role was the Israeli Mezzo-sopranist Dalia Schaechter. She pulled out amid the controversy, as did her colleagues, Samuel Youn and Ulrich Hielscher.