Welcome to NYC Guitar!

The Cockroach Diary by Nicoletta Todesco

"A genre-defying act of storytelling." — Fanfare Magazine

"This is top-shelf talent, execution, creativity, and boldness on display."— The Royal Editorial

The Cockroach Diary is, at its heart, a celebration of art song and the guitar’s ancient role in storytelling. From the lute song tradition to the present, the combination of voice and plucked strings has offered an intimate and powerful way to tell stories. This one-woman operetta brings that tradition into unexpected territory, with an uninvited houseguest becoming an artist’s unlikely muse.

For voice, classical guitar, and electric guitar, the work explores the many ways the guitar can enter into dialogue with the voice, moving beyond accompaniment to become a protagonist in the storytelling. Blending contemporary classical music, noise, humor, and surreal theatrical interludes, The Cockroach Diary becomes a journey through vulnerability, resilience, and the search for one’s own artistic voice.

For this new presentation at National Sawdust, the work expands into an immersive audiovisual experience, with live projections and animations by Xuan transforming the stage into a dreamlike world.