Kiri Te Kanawa
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa , CH , DBE , ONZ (* 6 March 1944 as Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron in Gisborne , New Zealand) is a New Zealand opera singer ( soprano ).
Life
Kiri Te Kanawa is New Zealander with an Irish mother and a Māori father, who grew up as an adopted child in the Te Kanawa family, in which the father was also Māori and the mother was also of Irish descent. Kiri Te Kanawa received her first singing lessons from Sister Maria Leo in Auckland . A few years later she won a singing competition in Melbourne, Australia and was then able to travel to London to study singing . Your first minor role, she received in London in the Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart . In 1969 she sang her first leading role: Elena in Gioachino Rossini's La donna del lago . She made her debut at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden in 1970 as Xenia in Boris Godunow . Over the next few years she sang on all the major opera stages in the world. Her Metropolitan Opera debut came about in 1974 when the singer Teresa Stratas fell ill . In just a few hours she had to prepare for the role of Desdemona in Giuseppe Verdi's Otello . At the Salzburg Festival in 1979 she sang the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro under Herbert von Karajan and Bernhard Klee .
Te Kanawa also made a name for herself as a song interpreter. Her concert repertoire includes songs by Henry Purcell as well as by Richard Strauss and Franz Liszt .
She sang at the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana in 1981 at St Paul's Cathedral in London.
In 1984 she became known to a wider audience beyond opera when Leonard Bernstein gave her the role of Maria in his only studio recording of the West Side Story . Josep Carreras sang the role of Tony at her side . Bernstein cast the orchestra with jazz musicians and selected what he believed to be the best voices for the roles in the musical . A documentary was made about the record .
In 1991 Kiri Te Kanawa sang the anthem for the rugby World Cup with World in Union . The single reached number 4 on the UK charts and number 5 in Ireland. The University of Waikato awarded her an honorary doctorate in 1996 . In 1997 she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Cambridge .
In August 2009 she announced the end of her operatic career. She gave her last performance on April 17, 2010 at the Cologne Opera House as Marschallin in Richard Strauss' Rosenkavalier . On September 4th, 2012 she gave a gala concert in Jaroměřice nad Rokytnou . In April 2013 she appeared in a revival series of the Donizetti opera La fille du régiment as Duchesse de Crakentorp at the Vienna State Opera . In the same year she embodied this pointed role at the Met . In the fourth season of the British TV series Downton Abbey , she appeared soon after in a guest role in which she played the Australian soprano Nellie Melba .
Discography
Albums
year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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1979 | Strauss: Four Last Songs - Orchestra Songs |
- | - | - |
NZ25 (2 weeks) NZ |
with Andrew Davis and the
London Symphony Orchestra |
1983 | A Royal Occasion ... | - | - | - |
NZ47 (1 week) NZ |
|
Verdi and Puccini Arias | - | - | - |
NZ11 ![]() (15 weeks)NZ |
||
1985 | West Side Story | - |
UK11 (32 weeks) UK |
- | - |
with Leonard Bernstein and José Carreras
|
Blue skies | - |
UK40 ![]() (29 weeks)UK |
US136 (16 weeks) US |
- | ||
1986 | Highlights from West Side Story | - |
UK72 (6 weeks) UK |
- |
NZ42 (2 weeks) NZ |
with Leonard Bernstein and José Carreras
|
South Pacific | - |
UK5 (24 weeks) UK |
- | - | ||
Christmas with Kiri | - |
UK47 ![]() (4 weeks)UK |
- | - |
with Carl Davis
|
|
1987 | Kiri Sings Gershwin | - | - | - |
NZ9 (11 weeks) NZ |
with John McGlinn and
The New Princess Theater Orchestra |
My fair lady | - |
UK41 (12 weeks) UK |
- | - |
with Jeremy Irons
|
|
1988 | Kiri | - |
UK16 ![]() (7 weeks)UK |
- |
NZ14th ![]() (6 weeks)NZ |
Chart entry in NZ only in November 1989
|
1990 | Kiri's homecoming | - | - | - |
NZ15 (4 weeks) NZ |
|
1991 | Heart to Heart | - | - | - |
NZ3 ![]() (13 weeks)NZ |
with Malcolm McNeill
|
1992 | The Essential Kiri | - |
UK23 ![]() (10 weeks)UK |
- | - | |
Kiri Sidetracks: The Jazz Album | - |
UK73 (1 week) UK |
- | - | ||
1994 | Kiri: A 50th Birthday Celebration of Her Greatest Hits - Live |
- | - | - |
NZ26 (5 weeks) NZ |
|
1995 | Christmas with Kiri Te Kanawa | - |
UK91 (1 week) UK |
- | - |
Recording: Coventry Cathedral , December 3rd 1994
|
1996 | Classic Christmas Album |
DE48 (4 weeks) DE |
- | - | - | |
1999 | Maori songs | - | - | - |
NZ4th ![]() × 3
(32 weeks)NZ |
with Māori (choir)
|
2004 | The Gala Concert | - | - | - |
NZ23 ![]() (6 weeks)NZ |
Dame Kiri and Friends with
The Auckland Philharmonia |
More albums
- 1991: Best Of Domingo, Te Kanawa And Pavarotti (UK:
gold)
Singles
year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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|||
1991 | World in Union | - |
UK4 (11 weeks) UK |
- |
NZ10 (7 weeks) NZ |
Title song of the ITV broadcasts on the
rugby world championship |
supporting documents
- ↑ Dame Kiri Te Kanawa in: Encyclopædia Britannica Online, accessed May 17, 2009
- ^ List of honorary doctorates from the University of Waikato
- ↑ Honorary Doctorates from the University of Cambridge
- ↑ Dame Kiri to end opera career . In: New Zealand Herald , August 14, 2009.
- ↑ a b Chart sources: Singles Albums UK US1 US2 NZ
- ↑ a b Gold / Platinum database UK NZ
Web links
- Works by and about Kiri Te Kanawa in the catalog of the German National Library
- Dame Kiri Te Kanawa - Biography . Academy of Achievement, December 10, 2013,accessed December 1, 2015.
- Kiri Te Kanawa at Allmusic (English)
- Kiri Te Kanawa at Discogs (English)
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Te Kanawa, Kiri |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Rawstron, Claire Mary Teresa (real name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | New Zealand opera singer (soprano) |
DATE OF BIRTH | March 6, 1944 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Gisborne , New Zealand |