Dame Kiri Returns to Sing With NZSO Anniversary

14 March 2007

Media release

Dame Kiri Returns to Sing With NZSO Anniversary Year

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is recognised the world over as a celebrated soprano as well as a dedicated mentor to young musicians. The Kiri te Kanawa Foundation was formed in 2005 to assist talented young New Zealand singers and musicians through thoughtful mentoring and financial support to assist them in realising their dreams.

Of European and Maori ancestry, Dame Kiri was seen and heard around the world by an estimated 600 million people, in 1981, when she sang Handel's "Let the Bright Seraphim" at the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer.

However it was her role as Countess in "Le nozze di Figaro" in summer 1971, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London that made her internationally famous. Her outstanding career has seen her perform at all the major operatic houses around the world and has won her many awards.

In December 2004 she walked off stage after the final performance of Samuel Barber's Vanessa with the Washington National Opera and the Los Angeles Opera and told the cast and crew that she had just performed her final opera role.

However she continues to perform operatic arias in concert as will be seen in her nationwide tour with the NZSO this March/April. These concerts will be particularly special occasions as they represent the long association the opera star has with the orchestra in its Diamond Jubilee year. Dame Kiri first performed with the NZSO in 1965 with a modest lunch-hour concert attracting record numbers (the same year she won the Mobil Song Quest); she returned home in 1970 to sing for the Queen; accompany the orchestra in 1974 on its first overseas tour to Australia; Seville for Expo 92 and 2005 Snape Maltings in the UK.

Neither has it escaped our notice that Dame Kiri also celebrates her birthday on the same day as the orchestra celebrates its own - 6 March, making this celebration year extra special.

These concerts begin with a celebration of the marriage of words and music. Arias by Mozart, songs and arias by Richard Strauss - who maintained a lifelong love affair with the soprano voice - precede Mahler's classically inspired Fourth Symphony. The supreme song-symphonist ends the work with a Wunderhorn song, The Heavenly Light, expressing an innocent child's view of paradise.

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.

When not on stage, Te Kanawa has a passion for the education of Maori, crediting her own parents for steering her in the direction of music, in fact her mother actually told her, "You will be an opera singer!" She has spoken out many times at the lack of mentoring for Maori children and the need for education to lead them away from a life of high rate of welfare dependence. This strong social responsibility has been channelled into the Kiri te Kanawa Foundation.

In a departure from its traditional support concept for the singers themselves, the Foundation has taken the innovative step of assisting well-known professional opera singer and teacher Jenny Wollerman to undertake a research trip to observe and absorb conditions in the United Kingdom.

She will then share this knowledge with music teachers and aspiring New Zealand students considering furthering their music education in the UK through a series of ongoing seminars and personal contacts. This ground-breaking new support initiative is set to reap benefits for young New Zealand singers aiming at successful careers on the world stage.

Dame Kiri does have some time to herself and pursue her hobbies - one of which is clay-pigeon shooting! And at 63, Dame Kiri still looks 20 years younger, something that she credits to her careful eating plan of organic food that she prepares herself as well as remembering not to eat in airplanes - considering the amount of time she has spent travelling over the years, this must have taken a lot of determination. Something we know, Dame Kiri has a lot of!

Dame Kiri te Kanawa sings arias by Mozart and Strauss around the country from 30th March.
WELLINGTON Friday 30 March 6.30pm, Michael Fowler Centre ONLY CHOIR STALLS LEFT

CHRISTCHURCH Tuesday 3 April 6.30pm, Town Hall
Preconcert talk 5.45pm

DUNEDIN Wednesday 4 April 6.30pm, Town Hall
Preconcert talk 5.45pm

HAMILTON Thursday 12 April 8pm, Founders Theatre

AUCKLAND Friday 13 April 6.30pm, Town Hall SOLD OUT
Book at Ticketek
TicketDirect in Hamilton
Service fee applies. Programmes and artists subject to change. For "sold out" concerts, please check with your booking office for returns. $12.50 RUSH tickets for Students, seniors and Community Services Card holders from ticketing outlets on the day of the concert until 30 minutes prior, ID required. Strictly subject to availability.

ENDS

© Scoop Media