Te Rangi Pai

Te Rangi Pai (born January 11, 1868 at Tokomaru Bay as Fannie Rose Howie , † May 20, 1916 in Opotiki ) was a New Zealand singer.

Fannie was the eldest of nine children of the Māori Herewaka Porourangi Potae (also Rangi-i-paea) from the Iwi Ngāti Porou and her English husband Thomas William Porter. Her father was mayor of Gisborne for five years . She attended Mrs. Sheppard's girls' school in Napier with three of her sisters .

Initially only musically educated at home, the talented Porter began to appear in public with her voice ranging from mezzo-soprano to alto .

On October 15, 1891, she married John Howie, a public servant, in Christchurch . She studied singing in Australia and returned to New Zealand after touring there.

Around 1900, she appeared on stage under a shortened version of her mother's name: Te Rangi Pai ( The Beautiful Spirit ). In December of the same year she traveled to England with her husband to study with the baritone Charles Stanley. There she acquired the ability to sing in various subjects such as concert oratorio and ballad. She made her England debut in Liverpool in 1901 and received critical acclaim, giving her many more appearances.

Her mother and her youngest brother Robert died at the end of 1904. Fanny was also in poor health. So she returned to her home country in 1905 and toured there from 1906 to 1907. On her last tour, she achieved lasting fame with her best-known work Hine e Hine .

Health problems and quarrels with her father, who had sold large lands to her mother, forced her to withdraw from public life. Fanny died on May 20, 1916 in Opotiki and was buried under a Pohutukawa tree in Maungaroa .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} page for the song "Hine E Hine" on folksong.org.nz with comments on the author, accessed August 14, 2013