Kiri Te Kanawa

This Cultural Life

The New Zealand born opera singer Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is one of the world's greatest sopranos. She enjoyed a 50 year career singing lead roles in opera houses around the globe, and on dozens of studio recordings. Since retiring in 2017 she has focussed on leading her Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation which supports young opera singers from her home country.

Dame Kiri talks to John Wilson about her early life in Gisborne and Auckland, New Zealand. Of Māori heritage, she was adopted as a baby and cites both her parents as a huge influence on her choice of career and work ethic. As a teenager she loved musical theatre, her favourite being Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story which she was later to record in an operatic version conducted by Bernstein himself. Moving to London in 1966 to study at the Royal Opera Centre, her education in opera began in earnest under her teacher Vera Rózsa. Her breakthrough role came in 1971 when she was cast as the Countess Almaviva in the Royal Opera House's production of The Marriage of Figaro. Her Metropolitan Opera House debut followed three years later when she was asked at the last minute to replace the soprano singing Desdemona in Verdi's Otello for the opening performance. Dame Kiri discusses the fame and attention she attracted when in 1981 she performed at the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, watched live by 600 million people. After over 60 years of performing, she also talks about her decision to finally retire in 2017.

Producer: Edwina Pitman

Archive used: Omnibus : Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story, BBC1, 10 May 1985 BBC Sound Archive, Kiri Te Kanawa interview with Andrew Sakley, 1966 Soprano Sundays, BBC2, 21 Dec 1975 Le Nozze di Figaro, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, 1971 Otello, Metropolitan Opera New York, 1974 BBC Sound Archive, The marriage service in St. Paul's Cathedral of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, 29 July 1981 Top Of The Pops, BBC1, 24 October 1991 Parkinson, BBC1, 18 March 1981 Going Live, BBC1, October 1991 Wogan BBC1, 25 Dec 1984