The creative team making "Madama Butterfly" soar

In his quest to create a Madama Butterfly that would resonate with contemporary audiences — particularly those troubled by the work’s inherent stereotypes, and its sometimes unfortunate performance history — director Matthew Ozawa widened the influence of his creative team. In a bold collaborative stroke, Ozawa assembled a team of female artists of Japanese origins — Yuki Nakase Link (lighting designer), Kimie Nishikawa from the dots design collective (set designer), and Maiko Matsushima (costume designer), — who have experience working in both Japan and the United States. 

Together the group sought a frame in which the figure of Madama Butterfly could better represent the lived experience of Japanese women. The result — a time-transcending, lush visual approach — foregrounds the fantasy inherent in the opera, resulting in a tale told with remarkable contemporary power.

Lighting designer Yuki Nakase Link previously worked with Matthew Ozawa on Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice at San Francisco Opera, and on Ozawa’s Fidelio, which appeared at Lyric last season. Based in New York City and the Baltimore area, Link started her career as a lighting designer for Nippon Television Network Corporation in Tokyo, working with them for eight years before she moved to the United States. Recent credits include Mozart’s Così fan tutte at Detroit Opera, John Cage’s Europeras: 3 & 4 at Detroit Opera, Aaron Zigman’s Émigré at New York Philharmonic, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo at Santa Fe Opera, and Christopher Cerrone’s In a Grove at Pittsburgh Opera.

The set designer Kimie Nishikawa is part of the award-winning design collective dots, based in New York City. The lead trio of designers includes also Santiago Orjuela-Laverde (originally from Colombia) and Andrew Moerdyk (from South Africa), who together have designed the Broadway productions of Floyd Collins; Romeo + Juliet; Oh, Mary!; An Enemy of the People (Tony Award Nomination for Best Scenic Design of a Play); Appropriate (Tony Award, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations for Outstanding Scenic Design); and The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window. Recent awards include a 2025 United States Artists Set Design Fellowship, a 2024 Obie Award for Sustained Achievement in Design, and a 2023 Henry Hewes Design Award.

A visual and installation artist, and a scenic and costume designer for theatre, dance, opera and film, Maiko Matsushima is based in Philadelphia, where she often designs for the Wilma Theatre, Pig Iron, the Arden, Headlong, and BalletX. Matsushima spent a decade based in New York City, designing costumes for regional theaters and New York theaters, and working as associate designer on Broadway productions such as Wicked, Pacific Overtures, and Spring Awakening. Her work has been seen at Classic Stage Company, the Prototype Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, Children’s Theatre Company, and Soho Rep. She is a professor of design at Bryn Mawr College.