Te Kanawa, Dame Kiri

Kiri Te Kanawa is an internationally acclaimed lyric soprano of Maori descent. She was still in her teens when she began winning vocal competitions in her native New Zealand and in neighboring Australia. In the nearly four decades since her 1971 debut, she has appeared in many of opera's most coveted roles, entertaining audiences in Paris, Milan, Salzburg, and Vienna, as well as appearing regularly at London's Covent Garden and New York's Metropolitan Opera. She also has a long history as soloist with renowned orchestras and substantial success as a recording artist. More recently, she has devoted the greater part of her time to mentoring a new generation of opera stars.

Born in 1944 to an unmarried Anglo mother and a married Maori father, Te Kanawa was adopted at birth by Nell and Tom Te Kanawa of Gisborne, New [Page 1440]Zealand. Her ambitious mother recognized Te Kanawa's musical gift and had her singing-mostly show tunes-from an early age. In 1956, the family moved to Auckland so that Te Kanawa could study at St. Mary's Girls’ School. She was 19 years old when she won second place in New Zealand's Mobil Song Quest. Fame came suddenly when she recorded her country's first gold album. At age 21 years, she claimed first prize in the Mobil contest and earned a scholarship to study at the London Opera Centre.

In London, she studied with Vera Rozsa-her first operatic training. Her singing of Elena in La donna del lago at the Camden Festival in 1969 brought her recognition as a promising talent, and her debut in a major role at Covent Garden as Mozart's Countess Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro soon followed. She moved from success to success, debuting at the Metropolitan Opera as Desdemona in Verdi's Otello. The vibrancy of her voice and her undeniable physical beauty and stage presence led to her performances in some of opera's most glamorous soprano roles: Marschallin in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, Marguerite in Gounod's Faust, and Amelia in Verdi's Simon Boccanegra. Perhaps her most famous role, and one she identifies as a favorite, is Donna Elvira in Mozart's Don Giovanni. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, she was one of the world's leading sopranos.