About puppetry

Puppets are also used in the current "Fidelio" production. Leonore and Florestan are doubled - or split up. Why does this make the production richer and clearer?

A puppet is always real. It doesn't play a role, it is the role we ascribe to it. This allows it to be absolutely convincing, without any personal barriers. So when a puppet dies, it dies better than any actress or singer. Because the actors get up again, take a bow, sweat. A puppet that is detached from the actress is dead. And with such impact that it can almost break your heart. Puppets may not be able to show some facial expressions, but they trigger the corresponding emotions and thoughts in the audience. The audience completes what we play. Because puppets are powerful projection surfaces. This presupposes that they must not only be well played, but also well built, comparable to a musical instrument.

A puppet gives us the opportunity to show the inner and outer worlds of a character - and these are extremely far apart, especially in the case of Leonore. We have before us a desperate woman who is torn inside: she is looking for her husband, but has to suppress her emotionality, disguise herself and present something else to the outside world - namely Fidelio. The inner world, the soul: that is the singer. What the character has to show on the outside: that is the puppet. These levels can separate, distance themselves from each other. Both layers can be experienced through the music and the text, but are not usually visible on stage. In our production, however, we not only hear the inner and outer worlds, we can also see them.

Manuela Linshalm is an actress and puppeteer and will play the Leonore puppet in the new production.