ABSTRACT

This chapter, by contrast, concerns an instance where puppets grace the operatic stage with an agenda of their own, in Phelim McDermott's 2007 production of Philip Glass's Satyagraha for the English National Opera and later the Metropolitan Opera. Indeed, newspaper is everywhere in this production: it is pasted onto the floors; it provides makeshift projection screens; it forms a whirling vortex that engulfs Gandhi in the middle of the second act; it is read by the chorus; it is even the skin of the giants. There is another way to read these giant puppets: by focusing on their newspaper skins. The wall of newspapers across the laps of the South Africans collapses as the music resumes, only to be rebuilt in the form of giant puppets. The puppet's construction through and out of the performance network makes it a compelling addition to operatic representation, where complex dynamics of voices and bodies, instruments and scenery are being constantly forged and transformed.