Andante has a very good article defending Western music's appropriation of Eastern musical language. I'm all in favour of opening the gates to foreign musical influences (I've got a long post on the subject in the works), and the notion that such artistic cross-pollination is a form of cultural imperialism is deeply offensive to me. Paul Mitchison debunks these absurdities quite well in his article, so I'll let you read it rather than plagiarizing his points. But I must remind the reader that such "cultural imperialism" produced (among other things) the loveliest flower of Romantic music, when Czech composers impregnated the Austrian forms with their native melodies and literary subjects. And when the anti-Orientalists claim that cross-cultural projects produce only "undistinguished melodramas spiced by intriguing melismas and mediocre town-band-style accompaniments", I must point out that that's a perfect description of Bellini's operas (which I like) and plenty of other enduring classical favourites; and that classical music in the 21st Century could (and does) do much worse, could in fact use quite a few more melodic, emotional works which audiences actually enjoy.

And the height of cultural arrogance is the anti-Orientalists' implication that other cultures are incapable of responding in kind. Japanese composer Shigeaki Saegusa has recently completed Jr. Butterfly, an operatic sequel to the Puccini. I can't vouch for the result (alas, I haven't heard his Chushingura opera), but it sounds like he's given a good deal of thought (read the article!) to the history of Japan's relationship with America, and presumably has infused the opera with the fruits of his meditation. (He has also visited Iraq recently, and has some intelligent observations on that issue.)

As for the opera's musicality, Saegusa remarked that it is definitely pleasant on the ears, which he believes is another essential factor for success.

"For the poet's narrations, I composed atonal music. For arias, I wrote sweet music so as to make a clear contrast. And I incorporate the very final part of the music from Madama Butterfly-- the music for the scene in which Butterfly kills herself-- into the introductive part of my opera as a sort of link (between the original opera and the new one). As a whole, my music is neither painful nor difficult, I assure you. If the music is difficult, no one would come again to my opera performances. I'd hate that," he said laughing.

Let's have more such projects, please. They may be hit-or-miss individually, but if composers persevere we'll see some winners.