Kiri Te Kanawa

The first, given outdoors during a homecoming tour of her native New Zealand, shows her achieving a remarkable feat of personality to match her excellent singing; she establishes a sense of intimate communication with an audience of 75,000. First, she sings an aria from an opera that was not otherwise part of her repertoire: the intense, anguished "Pace, pace" from Verdi's La forza del destino. This program is designed to show her versatility; besides arias by Verdi and Puccini, it includes My Fair Lady's "I Could Have Danced All Night," sung in a perfectly idiomatic style that would be out of reach for many opera stars, and a couple of songs in New Zealand's Maori language. A nice touch for a homecoming concert is her performance of "Home, Sweet Home" in Maori.

The second half of the program is a selection of music by Handel and Mozart, given in a sharply contrasting environment: a snowy evening in the exquisite baroque chapel, designed by Christopher Wren, at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich, England. A highlight of this segment, and a rare experience, is Mozart's Exsultate, jubilate, sung in its entirety, rather than the familiar, brilliant "Alleluia" segment that other sopranos use by itself simply to show off their technique. --Joe McLellan

That this set contained a complete performance of Mozart's "Exsultate Jubilate" alone made buying it a no-brainer. The piece is one of the most joyous and beautiful works by the youthful Mozart and Dame Kiri's treatment of it is second to none. Mozart preferred solid song structure and subtle forms of expression to bravura coloratura passages, using the last only when the effect would truly serve the music. To this end his music and Kiri Te Kanawa's voice are a perfect match. She has the capacity to deliver coloratura passages beautifully (and does) but thanks to her enormous range of shadings along with love and feel for the music itself delivers a rendition that's better the second time it's heard. That's when all the little treasures Mozart hid in the music begin revealing themselves. Dame Kiri, to her credit, serves them with her voice as opposed to things being the other way around as is so often the case with recording stars.

The rest of this set fares just as well. Dame Kiri loves music and not just one form of it. Her programs always offer both operatic highlights and popular standards. The Lerner/Loewe gem "I Could Have Danced All Night" gets a completely different treatment than in the film but (thanks again to her intuitive musicality) crosses genres well. Her signature song "Pokarekare Ana", as always, is sung beautifully. It's here, without accompaniment from the Orchestra where one understands just how lovely her voice is, and how good she is. The instruments are never missed. The sets have a few surprises. Handel's work is less popular in the operatic repertoire than that of Puccini, Mozart or Verdi but it gets a decent representation here. "Non Disperar" from Julius Ceasar and "Care Selve" from "Atlanta" with their transparent and light scoring common to Baroque opera contrast nicely with the rest of the program. As with everything else (though the assertion may be getting redundant) they are given beautiful and radiant treatment by Dame Kiri. Another surprise is a sort of an "unofficial Easter egg" in the form of "Ch'il bel sogno di Doretta" which immediately follows "Tu, Che di Gel" from Turandot. It's not listed on either cover, nor in the liner notes or even in the chapter listings on the DVD itself but is lovely and shows the full range of this woman's magnificent voice well. Because of this it earns terms like "Easter Egg" or "bonus" rather than "packaging blunder" which is what it probably was. There are other problems with the disc. The sound isn't what it could be. It's far from bad but is not great either. Essentially, it's CD quality (and pretty good CD quality at that) but doesn't stand up with the best of what DVD has to offer. That it's an older recording that was made for television doesn't excuse this. Image (the same label) has a recording of Lohengrin out from the same time period and the quality of the sound there simply leaves this in the dust. Listen to those trombones (for instance) in the Prelude to Act III on a decent set up and you'll hear it. I'm guessing, but the transfer and the bit rates the recording was sampled with are probably at fault. Another is the lack of subtitles. Granted, this set comes from a pair of concerts, not a full blown opera so the subtitles aren't really necessary, but they would have been nice to have.

These are minor complaints though and nothing that prevents the music from winning the day. This is a wonderful set of performances of great music from one of this age's greatest singers and is easily appreciated as such. The end of this set when the credits are running as her rendition of Puccini's "O Mio Babbino Caro" washes over the audience is an exquisite moment. To listen to this and not be touched one would have to be without a heart.

What can be said but, "thank you" Dame Kiri and "thank you again".


Magnificent Story of a Magnificent Person   August 23, 2002
LtCol Richard L. Jones (USAF-Retired) (Warner Robins, GA USA)
Sitting in a Kansas City motel room waiting for a wedding to start, I saw a TV special on the life of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, a person I had never heard of until then. I have not rested until I purchased the video, through the magic of computers and website. (I was late for the wedding, too, 'cause I could not turn off the TV) From her humble beginnings as an unwanted, adopted infant to the top of the musical universe, the film envelopes you in the warmth and human qualities of this person as well as her immense talent and dedication. She has the purest voice I think I have ever heard, without exessive vibrato or other typical operatic devices. I have never been an opera fan, but I fell in love with her, heart and soul, watching this video. You will too, when you see it. Join the millions who adore her and buy this video. (Available on DVD also, but I like the sound quality on VHS better, even though picture quality is not as good as DVD)


Refreshing!!!!!   September 17, 2001
James A. Bazen (Canton, Ohio United States)
I just recieved my copy of this lovely profile.As I stated in the title the only way to describe this is refreshing. I've always admired Kiri Te Kanawa as a singer.Now I'm even more in love with this woman as a human being. I won't give anything away for those who haven't seen it yet,but It was so inspiring for me to see that Kiri Te Kanawa has struggles insecurity,stage fright just to name a few,and that she seems to have a really keen sense of humor.I find that incredibly refreshing to see instead of some of the other puffed-up prima donnas we always seem to hear about in the opera world.You'll also get to hear several arias and songs by such composers as Mozart,Cilea,Puccini,Handel,and my personal favorite Richard Strauss,and you'll see why her beautiful,creamy voice is all the rage in the opera world. You can't go wrong with this video.You'll meet not only Kiri the world famous opera singer,but also Kiri the human being.


Kiri in the Outback   August 5, 2001
This is a wonderful must have video!With the great Kiri Te Kanawa in her best form and old friend Robin Stapleton conducting this is one for all music lovers.Kiri has a wonderful range in dynmanics.She has worked with greats from Berstein to Lloyd Webber himself so her vast knowledge of all music types comes into play here.Plus you have the stunning outblack.This is not the first time Dame Kiri has sung in the outback.Its wonderful to have the whole concert on view here.