Dame Kiri te Kanawa, who made her name singing at a doomed royal wedding (below), enters a new decade today.
She will be remembered as a wonderful Mozartian and Straussian, a lustrous stage presence and an ever-agreeable backstage colleague.
We’ve been given to understand that tonight’s Lebrecht…
Pablo Casals conducts a gloriously old-fashioned 1971 performance…
From the last Lebrecht Album of the Week…
Jiří Pánek, who died on December 19 aged…
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Not ever an agreeable backstage presence. Ask her management
Amazing singer and then her selfless investment in the next generation of singers. Happy birthday, Kiri, proud of you!
“An ever-agreeable backstage colleague???”
I doubt Kathy Battle would agree after the 1983 Metropolitan Opera ‘Arabella’ debacle.
would you elaborate on that matter please?
Kiri objected to Zdenka’s “Papa, Mama” aria in Act III and demanded that it be cut.
Based on Battle’s behavior at the Met, which resulted in her firing from Daughter of the Regiment and banishment from the house for twenty years, she’d be one to talk.
I agree.
But in this case, Kiri was playing the diva assoluta.
To his shame, Jimmy acquiesced to her demands for the cut.
Wasn’t Erich Leinsdorf the conductor of that production? Levine never conducted Arabella, to the best of my knowledge (at least not at the Met).
Ari Bocian is correct. The Arabella performances at the Met in 1983 were conducted by Erich Leinsdorf.
However Kiri went straight to the top and demanded that Musical Director James Levine instruct Leinsdorf to make the cut to Zdenka’s aria in Act III as per Te Kanawa’s edict.
As Arabella was staged purely as a showcase for Dame Kiri, it was an ultimatum Levine was prepared to risk the paroxysmal wrath of Kathleen Battle to accommodate.
On the Jimmy Shame Scale that was probably one of the lower-ranked.
You mean the Runt from the Front? That Kathy Battle? Where has she been the last few decades?
Yes, rather than gossip that gets elaborated on every time the story is told by people who weren’t even there, and causing hurt.
I still have the tee shirt from Kathy’s San Francisco “Regiment” debacle that says, “I Survived the Battle” LOL
From what I’d heard they all loved Kiri backstage in San Fran. She sounded amazing in “Capriccio”, the most gorgeous silvery female soprano voice I’ve ever heard to this day.
Happy birthday, Dame Kiri. I had the pleasure of being introduced to you by maestro Pavarotti 40 years ago at Covent Garden. I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to your beautiful, incredible voice ever since. Thankyou for enriching my life. May yours be ever more joyous in the years to come.
Jacqueline Deakin from England
Thank Kiri for giving of your amazing voice and the music inside your Heart
The Vocalise is is one of my favorites ❤️
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KIRI and many more
from
Madison (“Broadway Bound” tour- Michigan 1990
A great voice, with great theatrical intuition. A fine teacher, she knows how to breathe, and she knows what is perfect intonation. She knows how not to make an ugly sound and she knows how to walk onto a stage with elegance.
And her performances have made countless people happy. Plus she wants the best for a new generation. ‘nough said’.
Kiri te Kanawa had a once in a lifetime God-given voice.
Unfortunately, despite Sister Dame Mary Leo’s superb teaching, she lacked self-discipline and any interest in understanding the depth or nuances of the roles she was singing.
Sir John Pritchard brought out the best in the maverick Maori, but there was always a lack of serious artistic interpretation which prevented Kiri from becoming anything more than an absolutely glorious voice.
Arabella suited her distant, detached artistic personality perfectly.
Despite all that, tanti auguri and hari huritau.
It is enough to have a beautiful voice. It’s a miracle that it happens at all. To ask even more is ridiculous; we now ask that singers be beautiful – or at least look the part; be nuanced and imaginative; and make beautiful sounds on demand.
I dont know why you include the ‘despite all that’ complement as an afterthought if the previous statements are what you really think. You almost write it like a real critic would.
What an appallingly ignorant and spiteful comment – and demonstrably untrue, as I can substantiate by pointing to numerous recordings and performances. I have been reviewing opera for decades but am always amazed when I encounter your kind of malice.
I bet you’d say the same exact thing about Pavarotti.
Some singers, like Schwarzkopft, have beautiful voices but over-interpret. Not Kiri, her voice remained pure silver in all her roles and I loved her for it. Keep in mind Marschallin is a young girl in her early 30’s and it would be wrong to over-interpret as if she’s an old hag.
The categorical “any” is problematic:
“_ _lacked self-discipline and any interest in understanding the depth or nuances of the roles she was singing.
_ _anything more than an absolutely glorious voice.”
Dame Kiri certainly had her challenges, mentioned above, but also her moments.
The same could be said of any singer considered to be her superior.
For instance, you could dismiss Norman as an “operatic” Lieder singer, or Söderström for her coarse instrument, not that “lyrical”. Yet they do have their moments.
Happy Birthday Kiri! I was in London for your debut in “The Marriage of Figaro” and was captivated for ever more. You have brought so much joy to so many and I feel privileged to have heard your glorious voice. I treasure your Mozart recordings I have and play them often.
Always a gracious and elegant presence, I will particularly remember Kiri as she sang the Countess in Strauss ‘Capriccio’ at the MET. Best wishes to her as she trains another generation of singers.
Happy Birthday to a beautiful lady who is a glorious soprano and gifted musical artist! I have listened to your exquisite arias since the royal wedding!
Nobody has the right to look so stunningly beautiful and possess an equally stunningly beautiful voice. Dame Kiri outshines any soprano I’ve ever heard. She is also one of the kindest human beings I’ve ever had the pleasure to know. And one who brought so much joy to so many. Happy Birthday, KTK.
You should have posted this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpgnolyNGjQ instead. Free of Bernstein’s snake-charming, blood-curdling gaze, Kiri is on fire, she flies.
I find these comments referring to Kirri as a “maverick maori” racist and quite frankly distasteful and border line misogynistic. The comments should be removed.
How is refering to someone’s ethnicity racist? Is it racist to call a Frenchman French? Whatever one thinks of Jonathan Sutherland’s comment he has the right not to indulge in a hagiography of an artist with whom he has certain issues. Your definition of a misogynist seems to be ‘someone who fails to get dewy-eyed when faced with a talented woman’. Still, such misunderstandings are to be expected if you try to confront an opinion with which you do not agree with fourth-generation feminist cancel culture.
This is definitely a case of “The lady doth protest too much, methinks”.
How can it be racist to refer to an ethnicity that Dame Kiri not only freely acknowledges but actually extols.
The extension of such warped logic would be to declare the adjective ‘African American’ racist when discussing Leontyne Price or Shirley Verrett.
The suggestion that my comments were “border line misogynistic” is similarly absurd. Criticism of an opera singer’s acting skills has absolutely to do with their gender.
I stand by my original comments.
Dame Kiri had an absolutely superb, almost unique voice and effortlessly glamorous stage presence which I had the pleasure to experience on dozens of occasions.
However, in terms of acting ability, she was far below the calibre of contemporaries Norman, Popp, Rysanek, Lott, Mattila, Behrens, Stratas or the sublime Elisabeth Söderström
Quite so, LJ. Her Maori origins belong in her biography, not in an evaluation of her abilities as a singer. I bet there would be a furore if Paul Robeson were described as an Afro-American Commie or JEG were described as a Brit Bruiser.
But JEG is referred to as a Brit Bruiser. And nobody cares. Least of all him, I’d imagine.
If that is her grandson, she is blessed with a lovely
Family
Liking or disliking a particular performer is usually subjective, as this thread demonstrates. But clearly Dame Kiri has been acclaimed by huge numbers of devotees and isn’t she therefore entitled to congratulations on her 80th birthday without all these derisory put-downs?