The embodiment of Japanese traditions in the chamber opera by Peter Eötvös "Harakiri"
This publication deals with the chamber opera "Harakiri" of the Hungarian composer, Peter Eötvös. This work is the first experiment in the field of theatrical music of the author and the one of several opuses that were created under the impression of the Japanese traditional theater, with versions of which Eötvös acquainted in the city of Osaka (Japan). The work is written on the text of the writer István Bálint and is dedicated to two tragic deaths: the hara-kiri of the Japanese playwright Yukio Mishima and the suicide of the German composer Bernd Zimmermann. The opera demonstrates the ritual of hara-kiri, or rather, the preparation for it. In addition to specific vocals, for the musical embodiment of this process, the traditional Japanese wind instrument sakuhachi and an atypical percussion instrument - a woodcutter are used.