Kiri Te Kanawa

Dame Kiri Janette Te Kanawa, ONZ, DBE, AC (IPA: /ˈkiri: ˈtɛ ˈkɑːnəwə/, born March 6, 1944) is a full lyric soprano from New Zealand. In 1981, she was seen and heard around the world 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.[1]

Contents

Personal history

Kiri Te Kanawa was born Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron in Gisborne, on New Zealand's North Island. She has Māori and European ancestry, but little is known about her birth parents as she was adopted as an infant by an Irish mother and a Māori father. 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.[2] 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 Auckland in August 1967 and they married six months later. They adopted two children, Antonia (1976) and Thomas (1979) who was named after Kiri's adoptive father. The couple divorced in the late 1990s.

Career

In her teens and early 20s, Te Kanawa was a pop star and popular entertainer at clubs in New Zealand.[3] 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.[4]

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."[5] 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 as Cherubino.[6]

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."[7] It was followed by performances as the Countess at the Lyons Opéra 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.

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 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.

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 Māori people, angering some of her compatriots.[8]

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.[9] 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.[10][11]

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." [12]

The foundation manages a trust fund to provide financial and career scholarships to young New Zealand singers and musicians.

Career highlights

Discography

References

  1. ↑ "Famed soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is coming to Manila", BusinessWorld (2000-09-27), pp. 1. Retrieved on 2008-07-17. 
  2. ↑ Fingleton, David (1982). Kiri Te Kanawa: A Biography. Collins. pp. 21. ISBN 0002163659. 
  3. ↑ "Te Kanawa, Dame Kiri". Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. Retrieved on 2008-07-17.
  4. ↑ Jenkins, Garry; and Stephen d'Antal (1998). Kiri: Her Unsung Story. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-255942-0. 
  5. ↑ Gilbert, Susie; and Jay Shir (2003). A Tale of Four Houses: Opera at Covent Garden, La Scala, Vienna and the Met since 1945. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-255820-3. 
  6. ↑ Scott, Eleanor (1976). The First Twenty Years of the Santa Fe Opera. Santa Fe, N. Mex.: Sunstone Press. 
  7. ↑ Lebrecht, Norman (2000). Covent Garden: The Untold Story: Dispatches from the English Culture War, 1945-2000. London: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-85143-1. 
  8. ↑ "Dame Kiri remarks strike sour note". BBC News (2003-03-01).
  9. ↑ "Singer in court for refusing to perform". Yahoo! News (2007-01-28).
  10. ↑ ""Kiri Te Kanawa Wins Lawsuit Filed Following Withdrawal from Concerts with Pop Star"". Opera News Online (2007-03-21).
  11. ↑ ""Kiri Te Kanawa Wins 'Panty-Throwing' Lawsuit"". Playbill Arts News: Opera (2007-03-21).
  12. ↑ "Statement of Mission and Vision". Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation (2007-03-13).

External links