is a Japanese

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 composer.

Career

Saegusa is best known for his opera version Chushingura of the well-known kabuki

Kabuki

is classical Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers.The individual kanji characters, from left to right, mean sing , dance , and skill...

 epic of the Forty-seven Ronin

Forty-seven Ronin

The revenge of the , also known as the Forty-seven Samurai, the Akō vendetta, or the took place in Japan at the start of the 18th century...

/Chūshingura with a libretto by the novelist Shimada Masahiko. Written over a period of 10 years, the opera was most recently performed at the New National Theatre, Tokyo in 2002. His newest opera, Jr. Butterfly is a sequel of Giacomo Puccini

Giacomo Puccini

Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...

's Madama Butterfly

Madama Butterfly

Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...

.

He has also written the background music for anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

, the foremost of which being Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam

is a television anime, part of the Gundam series and a sequel to the original Mobile Suit Gundam. The show was created and directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, with character designs by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, while the series' mechanical designs is split amongst Kunio Okawara, Mamoru Nagano, and Kazumi Fujita...

. Other anime he has written for are Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ

Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ

is a TV series aired on Japanese TV from 1986–1987, was the third Gundam series, and a direct follow up to Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. Director Yoshiyuki Tomino returned to lead the series, and he assembled a new team consisting of character designer Hiroyuki Kitazume, who had been one of Zeta...

, Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack

Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack

is a 1988 anime film set in Gundam's Universal Century timeline of Gundam, specifically U.C. 0093.Making its theatrical debut on March 12, 1988, Char's Counterattack is the culmination of the original saga begun in Mobile Suit Gundam and continued through Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam and Mobile Suit...

, Catnapped! The Movie, and Mother: Saigo no Shoujo Eve.

Orchestral works

• 1971 Piano Concerto
• 1983 The Symphony
• 1985 Symfonic Suite Z Gundam
• 1989 Orchestra '89

Chamber/Instrumental works

• 1963 Bläserquintet (Wind Quintet)
• 1965 Novelette for string quartet
• 1977 Memory for narrator, string quartet and tape
• 1981 Radiation Mass for 4 synthesizers, vocorder and percussion
• 1983 Sho '83 for sho, percussion and keyboard
• 1987 Duo '87 for sangen and koto
• 1988 Cello '88 for cello solo
• 1988 Percussion '88 for percussion solo
• 1994 Four Concertos for violin, cello, piano and sangen

Vocal works

• 1970 Madrigal for 6 sopranos
• 1998 Requiem for soprano, tenor, mixed chorus and orchestra
• 2003 Requiem for soprano, tenor, male chorus and orchestra

Recordings

Chushingura was recorded in 1997 and published on compact disc (Sony Classical SK60233).

External links

• Official site