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Kiri Te Kanawa
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Dame Kiri Janette Te Kanawa, ONZ, DBE, AC, (March 6, 1944, Gisborne) is a New Zealand soprano who had a highly successful international opera career between 1968-2004. Posessing a warm full lyric soprano voice, Te Kanawa sang a wide repertoire that encompassed works from the seventeenth through twentieth centuries in Italian, French, German, Russian, and English. She particularly excelled in the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Richard Strauss, Giuseppe Verdi, George Friderich Handel and Giacomo Puccini.
Te Kanawa's voice has a vibrant but mellow quality that is ample in size without being overly heavy or forced.
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Encyclopedia
Dame Kiri Janette Te Kanawa, ONZ, DBE, AC, (March 6, 1944, Gisborne) is a New Zealand soprano who had a highly successful international opera career between 1968-2004. Posessing a warm full lyric soprano voice, Te Kanawa sang a wide repertoire that encompassed works from the seventeenth through twentieth centuries in Italian, French, German, Russian, and English. She particularly excelled in the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Richard Strauss, Giuseppe Verdi, George Friderich Handel and Giacomo Puccini.
Te Kanawa's voice has a vibrant but mellow quality that is ample in size without being overly heavy or forced. Although music critics have consistently praised the freshness and warmth of her voice, she has been at times criticized for her interpretations; with some critics feeling her performances lack vibrance, animation, and original expression. Nevertheless, the sheer beauty of Te Kanawa's voice made her one of the leading operatic sopranos internationally of the 1970s and 1980s. She found particular success in portraying princesses, noble countesses and other similar characters on stage, as her naturally dignified stage presence and physical beauty complimented these roles well.
Although no longer singing in operas, Te Kanawa still performs in concert and recital, whilst giving masterclasses and supporting young opera singers to launch their careers.
Personal history
Kiri Te Kanawa was born Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron in Gisborne, on New Zealand's North Island. She has Maori and European ancestry, but little is known about her birth parents as she was adopted as an infant by Thomas Te Kanawa, Maori, and his wife of Irish descent, Nell. She was educated at Saint Mary's College Auckland and formally trained in operatic singing by Dame Sister Mary Leo, RSM. She began her singing career as a mezzo-soprano, but later developed into a soprano. Her voice is that of a versatile full lyric soprano supported by a technique which has allowed Te Kanawa to sing a variety of music. Her recording of the "Nuns' Chorus" from the Strauss operetta Casanova was New Zealand's first gold record.
Kiri met Desmond Park on a blind date in London in August 1967 and they married six weeks later. They adopted two children, Antonia (1976) and Thomas (1979) who was named after Kiri's adoptive father. The couple divorced in 1997.
Career
In her teens and early 20s, Te Kanawa was a pop star and popular entertainer at clubs in New Zealand.
In 1965 she won the Mobil Song Quest with her performance of Puccini's "Vissi d'arte" from Tosca. In 1963, she was runnerup to Dame Malvina Major in the same competition.
As the winner, she received a grant to study in London. In 1966, she then won the prestigious Australian Melbourne Sun-Aria contest, which Major had also won the previous year. Both students had been taught by Dame Sister Mary Leo.
Early years in London
In 1966, without an audition, she enrolled at the London Opera Centre to study under Vera Rozsa and James Robertson, who reputedly said Te Kanawa lacked a singing technique when she arrived at the school but did have a gift for captivating audiences.
She first appeared on stage as the "Second Lady" in Die Zauberflöte, as well as in performances of Dido and Aeneas in December 1968 at the Sadler's Wells Theatre. In 1969, she sang "Elena" in Gioacchino Rossini's La donna del lago at the Camden Festival. Praise for her "Idamante" in Mozart's Idomeneo led to an offer of a three-year contract as junior principal at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden where she made her debut as 'Xenia' in Boris Godunov and a 'Flower Maiden' in Parsifal in 1970, and was also heard as the "Voice from Heaven", an off-stage role, in Verdi's Don Carlo. In 1969, she was offered the role of the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro after an audition of which the conductor, Colin Davis, said, "I couldn't believe my ears. I've taken thousands of auditions, but it was such a fantastically beautiful voice." Under director John Copley, Te Kanawa was carefully groomed for the role for a December 1971 opening.
International career
Meanwhile, word of her success had reached John Crosby at the Santa Fe Opera, a summer opera festival in the U.S. state of New Mexico then about to begin its fifteenth season. He cast her in the role of the Countess in Figaro, which opened on July 30, 1971. The performance also featured Frederica von Stade in her debut as Cherubino. "It was two of the newcomers who left the audience dazzled: Frederica von Stade as Cherubino and Kiri te Kanawa as the Countess. Everyone knew at once that these were brilliant finds. History has confirmed that first impression." Frederica and Kiri have kept up with their friendship to this day.
On December 1, 1971 at Covent Garden, Kiri Te Kanawa repeated her Santa Fe performance and created an international sensation as the Countess: "with "Porgi amor" Kiri knocked the place flat." It was followed by performances as the Countess at the Opéra National de Lyon and San Francisco Opera in autumn 1972, while her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1974 as Desdemona in Otello took place at short notice, replacing an ill Teresa Stratas at the last minute. She sang at the Glyndebourne Festival in 1973, with further débuts in Paris (1975), Milan and Sydney (1978), Salzburg (1979) and Vienna (1980). In 1982 she gave her only stage performances as Tosca in Paris. In 1980 she added Elisabeth de Valois in Don Carlos to her repertory at Chicago, and in 1991 the Countess in Capriccio, sung first at Covent Garden and with greater success at Glyndebourne and the Metropolitan in 1998.
In subsequent years, she performed at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Paris Opera, Sydney Opera House, the Vienna State Opera, La Scala, San Francisco Opera, Munich and Cologne, adding the Mozart roles of Donna Elvira, Pamina, and Fiordiligi, in addition to Italian roles such as Mimi in La bohème. She played Donna Elvira in Joseph Losey's 1979 film adaptation of Don Giovanni.
She was seen and heard around the world in 1981 by an estimated 600 million people when she sang Handel's "Let the Bright Seraphim" at the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Lady Diana Spencer.
In 1985, the eminent composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein decided to re-record the musical West Side Story, conducting his own music for the first time. Generally known as the "operatic version", it starred Kiri as Maria, José Carreras as Tony, Tatiana Troyanos as Anita, Kurt Ollman as Riff, and Marilyn Horne as the offstage voice who sings "Somewhere". It won a Grammy Award for Best Cast Show Album in 1985 and the recording process was filmed as a documentary.
Te Kanawa has a particular affinity for the heroines of Richard Strauss. Her first appearance in the title role in Arabella was at the Houston Grand Opera in 1977, followed by the roles of the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier and the Countess in Capriccio. Many performances were given under the baton of Georg Solti and it was with him that she made her first recording of Figaro.
Te Kanawa retired as a singer from the opera stage after her performances in Samuel Barber's Vanessa with the Washington National Opera and the Los Angeles Opera in November/December 2004, but she still performs in concert halls. In February 2010 she will play the spoken part of The Duchess of Krakenthorp at the Metropolitan Opera.
Honours
Kiri Te Kanawa was created a Dame Commander of The Order of the British Empire in 1982, invested as an Honorary Companion of the Order of Australia in 1990 and awarded the Order of New Zealand in the 1995 Queen's Birthday Honours List. She has also received honorary degrees from the following universities in the UK: Cambridge, Dundee, Durham, Nottingham, Oxford, Sunderland, Warwick as well as these universities worldwide: Chicago, Auckland and Waikato as well as being honorary fellow of Somerville College, Oxford and Wolfson College, Cambridge. She is also patron of Ringmer Community College, a school in the South-East of England situated not far from Glyndebourne.
On June 12, 2008 she received the Edison Classical Music Award during the Edison Classical Music Gala (formerly: 'Grand Gala du Disque') in the Ridderzaal in The Hague.
Controversy
In a 2003 interview with the Melbourne-based Herald Sun she was critical of the high rate of welfare dependence among the Maori people, angering some of her compatriots.
In 2007, Te Kanawa was sued for breach of contract by Leading Edge, an event management company, after canceling a concert with Australian singer John Farnham. She had decided to cancel after learning that his fans sometimes threw their underwear on stage, which he would then proudly display. She won the suit, in part because no binding contract was made, but over $100,000 in court costs were awarded against the Mittane holding company which employs and manages Te Kanawa.
Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation
Kiri founded the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation with the vision "that talented young New Zealand singers and musicians with complete dedication to their art may receive judicious and thoughtful mentoring and support to assist them in realising their dreams."
The foundation manages a trust fund to provide financial and career scholarships to young New Zealand singers and musicians.
Career highlights
- Born March 6, 1944 in Gisborne, New Zealand.
- Studied under Sister Mary Leo 1959-1965 at St Mary's College in Auckland.
- Had New Zealand's first gold disc, with a popular operatic aria.
- Was second to Dame Malvina Major in the Mobil Song Quest in 1963, won it in 1965.
- Won the Melbourne Sun Aria in 1965, and was awarded an Arts Council of Great Britain bursary to study at the London Opera Centre.
- Made her US debut at Santa Fe Opera with her performance as the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro in summer 1971, and became internationally famous at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London after singing the role on 1 December 1971.
- Sang at the San Francisco Opera, the Metropolitan Opera in New York and La Scala in Milan, Italy.
- In 1981 sang at the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in St Paul's Cathedral.
- She won a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording in 1984, for Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro". It was produced by Christopher Raeburn and the London Philharmonic Orchestra was conducted by Georg Solti. Also featuring were Thomas Allen, Kurt Moll, Lucia Popp, Samuel Ramey and Frederica von Stade.
- Created Dame Kiri Te Kanawa in 1982, and returned to New Zealand to sing several times, including the New Year millennium concert at Gisborne in January 2000.
- In 1985, made a special recording of West Side Story in the leading role of Maria with Jose Carreras as Tony, and conducted by Leonard Bernstein.
- In 1986, again partnered Jose Carreras in the recording of the musical South Pacific.
- In 1994 celebrated her 50th birthday, culminating in a spectacular Birthday Concert at the Royal Albert Hall, London. Long awaited return to the Metropolitan Opera as Arabella.
- November 1999, released a new album, Maori Songs.
- Sang in her last opera, Vanessa, in 2004, but continues with recitals and concerts and organising the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation, to help young music students.
- On March 15, 2006, Te Kanawa played a role in the 2006 Commonwealth Games. She sang a medley of "Happy Birthday" to Queen Elizabeth II, in recognition of her upcoming birthday, and "God Save the Queen".
- December 2, 2007, sang to the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at the Royal Variety Performance. Her performance included leading the National Anthem, God Save the Queen
- June 28, 2008, she sang Summertime in duet with Portuguese fado singer star Mariza, at Casino Estoril.
- July 19, 2008, sang her last American concert with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia Park.
- February 6, 2010, returns to the Metropolitan Opera as the Duchess of Krakenthorp in La Fille du Régiment - a non-singing character part.
Discography
External links
- * (Capon's Lists of Opera Recordings)
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