The argumentational excuse on which this opera is articulated to the most classic style has been so much counted infinity of times in the japanese kabuki theater as in the cinema (with the versions of 1962 -directed by Hiroshi Inagaki- and 1941 -directed by Kenji Mizoguchi- to the head, but also with versions from 1932, 1934, 1939 and 1954), and its essence seems to reflect an evident attraction in the mentality of the Japanese people, that that speaks of the honor and the vengeance, of the self-sacrifice (the famous seppuku). Now is the composer Saegusa Shigeaki and the librettist Shimada Masahiko those that try to count again this so narrated history, this time from a surprisingly western musical perspective; the style chosen by Shigeaki, after an impressive introduction marked by a gigantic percussive apparatus (Overture) it is closer to the poetical lyricism used in his operas by Tchaikowsky that to that of any other modern oriental composer, as the opera Marco Polo (1996) by the Chinese composer Tan Dun. Divided in three acts, with a narrative structure in flashback, the history of the 47 ronin that retaliated their dead Master is counted with the most classic operatic methods: duets, arias, scenes, etc... they succeded on an absolutely tonal and westerner harmonic mantel, where everything seems to fit to the perfection, and where the only thing that surprises is that the text is (logically) in Japanese. Apart from this, stupendous recording and performance, registered live in 1997.

Chushingura (1997) - 47:46
Naono Tasuku (Baritone), Sato Shinobu (Sopran), Kobayashi Kazuo (Tenor) - Tokyo Symphony Orchestra - Conductor: Otomo Naoto
SONY CLASSICAL SK60233 / 187'

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