Lenz Fondazione stages Verdi Macbeth with thousands of crickets

Lenz Fondazione presents 'Verdi Macbeth. Dramma fantastico e vero', a new stage and musical work commissioned by the Festival Verdi 2018 in Parma. Directed by Maria Federica Maestri and Francesco Pititto, the installation occupies the Sala Majakovskij with twenty-four vertical terrariums filled with thousands of live crickets. Lady Macbeth is split into two performers: soprano Roxana Herrera Diaz and actress Sandra Soncini. A chameleon in a central terrarium symbolizes her. The chorus, wearing balaclavas and funeral kilts, transforms into bearded witches. Macbeth is performed by baritone Hyunwoo Cesare Kwon. The work explores the death-life cycle, guilt, and sleeplessness, with the cricket chirping representing perpetual wakefulness. The production includes video of the Teatro Regio di Parma chorus and live singing by bass Eugenio Maria Degiacomi as Banquo. The narrative alters traditional roles: Lady Macbeth speaks Macbeth's lines, and the couple performs rituals with lettuce. The piece emphasizes the ineluctability of the death-life cycle without heroic rhetoric or discourse on power or evil.