''At the moment everyone is so excited. It will be difficult to keep that excitement under control,'' said the world-famous maestro in an interview earlier this week following a smooth rehearsal of Beethoven's ''Ode to Joy.''

The opening spectacular at the Olympic stadium in Minami Nagano Sports Park will feature choruses in five cities on five continents -- Beijing, Berlin, Cape Town, New York and Sydney -- who will join via satellite hookup with 2,000 Japanese singers in the stadium and a multinational orchestra formed for the occasion which will be conducted by Ozawa at the Nagano Prefectural Culture Hall.

At least, that's what Ozawa hopes will happen.

''The most important thing will be to synchronize the choruses,'' he said, adding that the satellite hookup will be tested in a final rehearsal to be conducted on the eve of the opening ceremony.

Conducting a global orchestra, however, is only one of the hurdles faced by the 62-year-old music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He dealt with even greater challenges before the mammoth project got under way.

''Most trying was the fact that everyone opposed my (musical) selection,'' he said, referring to the ''Ode to Joy'', a popular Beethoven work that is performed throughout Japan at the end of each year.

''Some of my friends said 'We've just heard it a hundred times in December. The Japanese are sick and tired of this piece.' But I don't think so,'' he said.

Ozawa, a firm believer in the theory that music is a universal language that unites people of different racial, religious and cultural backgrounds, said the orchestra is a case in point.

''They have all gone through a different education, but it took them only four days of joint practice to become an entity,'' he said.

Ozawa, who was born to Japanese parents in Shenyang in northeastern China in 1935, said witnessing racial discrimination as a child filled him with a desire to overcome national and ethnic boundaries with his work.

''Music is the best way to do that. A lot of good words won't get you there, but through music people will understand,'' he said.

Despite having spent much of his life outside Japan, Ozawa said he has not lost his Japanese roots.

''I am a Japanese wherever I go, whatever I do. That doesn't change,'' he said.

(Kyodo News)