AWhen Kiri Te Kanawa made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1974 opposite Jon Vickers' Otello, she confirmed Giuseppe Verdi's statement that “the best singer in the lot will be the one who sings most beautifully.” She confirmed it again thirteen years later when, now alongside Plácido Domingo, she sang “the song of the willow and the 'Ave Maria' with a heavenly, beautiful tone”. The word about the beautiful voice, about “the most beautiful voice”, about the “most distinguished voice” has accompanied Kiri Te Kanawa's career from the beginning.
Born in New Zealand to an Irish mother and a Maori father, Kiri te Kanawa used the prize money from a competition won in Australia to go to England in 1966 and study at the Opera Center, still as a mezzo-soprano. On the advice of conductor Richard Bonynge, she switched to soprano in 1967. When she sang the title role in Henry Purcell's “Dido and Aeneas” at a concert performance that same year, the English critic Alan Blyth bet on her as “the opera star of the next decade”. His colleague John Steane remembered for many years, as he writes in “Singers of the Century” (Volume 2), that after a performance of “Boris Godunov” (1970) with Boris Christoff, he asked: “Who was this Xenia ?”, who only has a few minutes to draw attention to herself at the opera.
She fulfilled all expectations when, in 1971, she provided those “at momenti” that remained unforgettable in a production of Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” at the Covent Garden Opera under Colin Davis. Ten years later, her portrayal of the Countess became the highlight of the recording under Sir Georg Solti. In a conversation, the Hungarian maestro enthusiastically spoke of a “love affair with this voice”. It is a voice whose sound is alloyed with gold and silver; that shines high and can flawlessly form long bows in the roles of Mozart or Strauss and knows few technical hurdles. Under his aegis at Covent Garden Opera she has portrayed Micaëla in “Carmen”, Amelia in “Simon Boccanegra” and Donna Elvira in “Don Giovanni”. Central roles in the lyrical and youth genre soon followed: Marguerite in “Faust”, Tatjana in “Eugene Onegin”, Fiordiligi in “Così fan tutte”, Pamina in “The Magic Flute” and three by Richard Strauss: Marschallin, Arabella and Madeleine. Since the late 1980s she has made increasing cross-over recordings, including Westside Story. Her singing, said Leonard Bernstein, was “a dream.”
There is also, oh!, the misery of the beautiful to talk about. In reviews or comments there is an ostinato, an often grim distancing from external, mere, meaningless beauty; even about the autoerotically perceived beauty that is common among melomaniacs. She is not remembered as an “interesting” singer – or singing actress – because she did not have an “acting voice” that used the means of word painting or verbal punching, like Maria Callas or Elisabeth Schwarzkopf did. But she has shown like few others that the most important task is to create a beautiful – also in the sense of: true – sound. It is, above all interpretation, an essential part of musical performance. There can be an art in this that hides art. Kiri Te Kanawa was on stage until 2013. Today she turns eighty years old.
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