The Operatic Saxophone Turns 5

If you have had trouble accessing my database, don’t fret. I was using Caspio, a free online database for the past five years. This October, they switched to a paid only version, free to $100 a month. Why? Because now Caspio has AI. I can’t even begin to imagine why AI is useful in databases, and before you might explain it to me let me inform you that I am a Luddite. I will not use AI. That is my promise. This research cannot be done with AI, it requires human eyes, ears, and critical thinking skills.

I’ve been trying to figure out what the next step is and I’ve decided to organize my the 900+ works into pages based on the composer. I will have to reorganize my site, and I expect this to take 3 months or more. My hope is the website will be more user friendly.

In the meantime, Operavision has several operas worth checking out. The first opera I recommend is Toshio Hosokawa’s Natasha. This video is from the New National Theatre Tokyo’s which premiered this opera in August in 2025. This tells the story of Natasha and Aruto and they descend the circles of hell. An update on Dante’s inferno, each circle represents a modern man-made hell. In the 3rd circle, Mephistos Enkel drags Natasha and Aruto into the hell of Earthly Delights made of Plastics. The video below starts at the 3rd circle.

Upon entering this hell, the first thing Natasha and Aruto hear are a squealing saxophone and electric guitar, played by Masanori Oishi on alto saxophone and Gaku Yamada on Electric guitar. The squeals fade as the duel sopranos made of plastic take over. Hosokawa modeled this movement after a Japanese pop song. It is the catchiest work in the opera, and the after a neutral palette in the previous scenes, one of the most visual captivating. If you are interested in watching the entire opera, it requires patience. It moves slow, but the payoff at the end is worth it.

If you’re in the mood for something more traditional, Operavision also has Ambroise Thomas’s 1868 opera, Hamlet. This is the opera that started me on this mission to document the saxophone’s history. The video below starts at the dinner where the theater troupe performs, with the alto saxophone solo.