From the Life of Insects opened at the SND (Slovak National Theater) in February 1987 and was the last finished opera by the Slovak composer Ján Cikker; it was one of several operas and other productions based on The Insect Play, a satirical drama written by Karel and Josef Čapek in 1921. The composition here by Cestmir Pechr, who produced posters for the theater for some 30 years, refers to the play’s nightmarish story of a tramp who falls asleep in the woods and dreams of anthropomorphic insects that reflect various human characteristics. The military helmets here point to the fact that the original play allowed its writers to address the difficulties of life in Czechoslovakia after World War I.