For Atsushi Yamada, conductor of the New York City Opera, his presentation of Giacomo Puccini's opera "Madame Butterfly" to be staged in Tokyo and Nagoya in May will be something of a triumphant return.
Seven years after joining the opera company as an unpaid assistant to NYCO's music director George Manahan, he will conduct what will be the company's first full opera production outside North America in its 62-year history.
Top billing in the dual-opera production, which is part of the U.S. cultural program at Aichi World Expo, will be "Little Women," an opera based on the classic novel by Louisa May Alcott and conducted by Yamada's mentor Manahan. However, Yamada's performance is equally significant in that it will serve as a lesson to people who assume artists without diplomas cannot make it in the world of professional classical music.