Birthday at Broward 
In late February, Soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa performed works by Handel, Debussy, Vivaldi and others at Fort Lauderdale's Broward Center for the Performing Arts, her first performance in the state of Miami in 16 years. Te Kanawa, who celebrated her 66th birthday on March 5, attributes her vocal health and professional staying power to the firm hand with which she has guided her own career. "An artist has a world to create," she says. "One person has to take charge. I was fairly strong and brave." Her rapid rise, she says, was undergirded by the five years she spent in Covent Garden's young artist programme. "I was paid only 50 pounds a week but it was worth it. I was well taken care of and prepared for the opportunities that would come my way." If there is one role that captures her mystique it is Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier. She will again portray the aging aristocrat in love with a younger man in April at the Cologne Opera for what may be her operatic swan song. "It is a role I can do at my age," she says. 
(5 March 2010)

Poptastic
‘Opera band’ Amici Forever’s clever fusion of classical and pop music continues to win them fans in the US and around the world. The brainchild of Kiwi member Geoff Sewell, Amici Forever’s debut album sold in excess of 3 million copies. Album number two, Defined, has already topped the NZ charts and is expected to perform strongly upon its global release.
(17 September 2005)
   

The singing accountant
Front page Weekend Australian feature on "Kiwi heart-throb" Teddy Tahu Rhodes hails the former accountant from Christchurch as “Australian opera’s new lead.” “While his body, all 192cm of it, caused titters in the audience … it was his voice that caused a stir among the cognoscenti. Subtly coloured, unstrained and powerful, it is a rare lyric baritone that, in that package, makes Rhodes a casting dream.” Rhodes is playing Dandini in Rossini’s Cinderella for Opera Australia before returning to the U.S, where he has already made a strong impression with critics and audiences alike. 
(15 March 2003)
 

World-first opera band
NZEdged tenor Geoff Sewell (2nd from L, above) and his London-based opera band Amici Forever have signed a record-breaking six million pound recording deal. Their first album is to be released in the UK mid-Sept and features opera and rock classics such as an Italian version of Unchained Melody and Nessum Dorma from Puccini’s Turandot. Heralded as the “world’s first opera band”, Amici Forever is two female and three male voices hand picked from across the globe for their "exceptional voices and artistic virtuosity". They have already caused a sensation with their performances at the Champions League Final as well as on a recent tour with iconic songstress Shirley Bassey. Geoff Sewell sang in a Hawkes Bay choir as a boy, and was an accountant in Wellington before moving to London for a banking career that has segued into musical stardom. 
(25 August 2003)
 

In high demand
Fresh out of London's Royal College of Music, NZ-born Samoan Jonathan Lemalu is being widely touted as "the next big  thing in opera." A qualified lawyer and accomplished (former) rugby player - "I kind of don't want to get my larynx stepped on" - Lemalu's vocal services are booked internationally until 2005. He is currently playing Leporello in Opera Australia's production of Don Giovanni. Early reviews are glowing: "It is rare to find lyric smoothness, and vocal warmth, combined so well with an engaging dramatic presence" (SMH).
(1 January 2003)

Moving opera
Diva Kiri Te Kanawa's welcome to the millennium was "the first, and one of the relatively few, moving moments among a hailstorm of images bearing down from around the globe during marathon New Year's Eve coverage".
(2 January 2001)
 

Dame delights
"Well, little Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is a friend of mine. She's a little New Zealand singer." Dame Edna Everage of Australia on her illustrious mate, Kiri.  
(4 November 2000)

Simply the best: Dame Kiri: the Tina Turner of the opera world?
Dame Kiri talks about her Maori heritage, playing to an audience of 600 million people, her forthcoming concert with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and how long she can keep performing. Interviewing the  world-renowned soprano, "looking a slim and chic 56", provokes Mike Bradley to compare her with another enduring diva, 60-year-old grandmother Tina Turner.
(26 June 2000)

Free to be a Diva: Kiri Te Kanawa
Kiri Te Kanawa isn't retiring, she's just trying to see the world.
(April 2000)
      

Still singing
Dame Kiri scotches retirement rumours. Her agents are "actively seeking engagements and opportunities well into 2001 and beyond".
(6 December 2000)
 

Rhodes vies for Bianca 
New Zealand baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes performs in Rossini's Bianca e Fallierio at Washington D.C's Lisner Auditorium in April. Rhodes stars as Capellio, Fallierio's rival for the affections of Bianca. Rhodes won New Zealand's Lexus Song Quest in 1989 and studied at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His discography includes Faure's Requiem and Le naissance de Vénus, Handel's Messiah as well as the solo discs, Mozart Arias, The Voice and Vagabond. 
(13 February 2008)

From death row to Don Giovanni 
Star NZ baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes has shown his versatility in an impressive series of Australian opera roles this year. In August, Tahu Rhodes played construction worker Stanley Kowalski in the Australian premiere of Andre Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Bruce Beresford for Opera Australia. In September, he excelled as Joseph de Rocher, the Louisiana death-row inmate in the State Opera of South Australia production of Dead Man Walking. The Christchurch-born singer is now based in Melbourne, reprising the role of legendary lover Don Giovanni for Opera Australia. "He's a darling of the critics, even if some grumble that they don't 'get' the sex appeal," writes Age reviewer Steve Dow. "Surely anyone can appreciate his slipping on the black-leather, knee-high boots and leaping about on stage, aside from his vocal virtues." Don Giovanni is at Melbourne's Art Centre until December 14. 
(22 November 2007)

Soprano scales new heights
Gisborne-born soprano Marie-Adele McArthur graced Opera America's home page for the month of June, with images and video of her acclaimed performance as Lina in Verdi's Stiffelio. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune described her as "the perfect Verdi heroine, richly musical and emotionally touching", while the Post-Standard praised her voice as "unified in its pleasing color, capable of tremendous range, strong enough to easily soar over the combined sonic mass of the orchestra and chorus, and used with acute intelligence." A dual resident of NZ and the US, McArthur is a direct descendent of Maori chief Te Hapuku and is currently based in New York.
(June 2007)

Edge awardees
NZ performers Teddy Tahu Rhodes and Ross McCormack were commended at the annual Helpmann Awards in Sydney, August 10. Rhodes was named Best Male Performer in an Opera for his lead role in the South Australian State Opera's production of Dead Man Walking, and McCormack won Best Male Dancer in a Ballet or Dance Work for his part in the Australian Dance Theatre production, Held. The Helpmann Awards were established by the Australian Entertainment Industry Association (AEIA) in 2001 to “recognise distinguished artistic achievement and excellence.”
(11 August 2004)
  

No worries for Wunderkid
Dunedin-born baritone, Jonathan Lemalu, is soon to make his Royal Opera House debut as Zoroastro in Handel’s Orlando. Described by the Guardian as “[perhaps] the next Bryn Terfel,” his career has skyrocketed since graduating from London’s Royal College of Music just over a year ago. He has an EMI contract, award-winning solo recording, and several acclaimed Covent Garden appearances already to his credit, and is to debut at the New York Met and the Chicago Lyric Opera in 2004. Says Lemalu of the perils of fame, “A lot of it is the expectations I have of myself. Then there's the pressure of maybe wanting to live up to the reputation I have. There are doubters - there's sometimes a certain wording in my reviews that seems to be saying, 'Let's not let this wunderkid think he's so special.' I can understand that. But I'm not going to stay up all night worrying about them.”
(26 September 2003)
   

Lauded for a lifetime 
Soprano Dame Kiri Te Kanawa will be presented with a lifetime achievement award at the 11th annual Classical Brits to be held at the Royal Albert Hall on May 13. Dame Kiri joins a list of past recipients which includes Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras, and will perform live on the night. Mark Wilkinson from the Classical Brit Awards committee said, "It is a fitting tribute to one of the greatest sopranos of our times who has befriended British audiences and helped to nurture new singing talent for so many years". Dame Kiri said she was "honoured and delighted" to be given the award. Earlier this year, she launched a nationwide search for an opera star of the future. The winner of the BBC Radio 2 Kiri Prize will get the chance to perform with her at Radio 2's Proms In The Park in September. 
(9 February 2010)

Soap's Scottish success 
Wellington opera director Colin McColl was interviewed by The Scotsman on the eve of the opening night of Rossini's The Italian Girl in Algiers at Glasgow's Theatre Royal. Has Scottish Opera lost its marbles again? Is it about to do to Rossini what Jerry Springer the Opera did to Jesus Christ? If the popular success of McColl's original version of this production in New Zealand earlier this year is anything to go by (Scottish Opera is collaborating with New Zealand Opera on this one), then it may not be as sacrilegious as it seems. McColl openly admits to going down an "outrageous" route, but presents a rationale that is genuine and sound. "I wish I could say I was laying down a gauntlet, but this is just my response to the opera." McColl acknowledges the greater freedom he enjoys in the southern hemisphere. "We are not so bound by the European tradition. Like our wines, we do it our way, so there's scope for exploration." The Guardian gave the Glasgow show four stars, calling the modernist production "delightfully irreverent", "a lot of fun and not to be missed". McColl has won three Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards for Best Director. He co-founded Wellington's Taki Rua Theatre in 1983 and was artistic director of Downstage Theatre from 1984–1992. The Italian Girl in Algiers tours to Inverness on 7 November, Aberdeen on 14 November and Edinburgh on 21 November. 
(21 October 2009)

Soprano for life 
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is profiled in the Guardian's 'Portrait of the Artist' column in which the soprano says opera is sung by performers from "very ordinary backgrounds". "I'm not an elitist, so I think it must come from the people who go to the opera," Te Kanawa says. "Perhaps the fact that most of it is sung in a foreign language makes people feel detached from it." She bemoans the rise in popularity of television show Britain's Got Talent saying, "Contestants don't put in the effort we have to, even to get to the first rung of the ladder. Opera is for a lifetime, not just a minute." Te Kanawa says her favourite museum is Te Papa: "They have a lot of my own artefacts there, including the dress I wore to perform at Prince Charles's wedding to Diana." 
(17 August 2009)

Teddy charms 
"There could not have been a more dashing, roguish Count than the New Zealand baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes," writes Janelle Gelfand in a Cincinnati Enquirer review of Cincinnati Opera's production of The Marriage of Figaro, in which Tahu Rhodes played the philandering Count Almaviva. "He was commanding whenever onstage, as he grew more and more baffled at the events around him, and his nuanced baritone was a joy." Bass-baritone Jonathan Lemalu also performed, in the role of the Count's valet Figaro. "His Act IV aria, 'Aprite un po' quegli' occhi,' warning men about women, was his finest moment." 
(12 June 2009)

Dame Kiri begins farewell 
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa has launched her farewell tour of North America in Vancouver. Canada's Globe and Mail ran a feature on Te Kanawa, covering world famous soprano's career from her fêted debut at Covent Garden in 1971, to the launch of her Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation for young musicians in 2004. G&M: "Te Kanawa, 63, is one of the most celebrated sopranos of modern times and has performed in the leading opera houses in the world - from Sydney to La Scala. Her voice has been described as 'rich,' 'flawless,' and, particularly evocative, 'creamy.'" Te Kanawa's North American farewell tour includes shows in Toronto, Calgary and New York. 
(20 September 2007)

Teddy the complete package
Teddy Tahu Rhodes has won over American critics with his starring role in Cincinnati Opera's Don Giovanni. Cincinnati Enquirer: "As murderous rakes go, Rhodes wielded considerable charm ... [His] voice combined suaveness with power, and was seamless with his acting. Whether dressed in all white or in black leather, his agile presence - all 6 foot 5 inches - dominated the stage." Cincinnati Post: "The NZ baritone sounds terrific, alternately suave and callous, yet always with a warm, good natured tone. Rhodes plays a rogue who likes his lechery. As a bonus, he looks and acts the part, matching good looks with a powerful stage presence."
(9 July 2004)
  

Something to sing about
Singing star Jonathan Lemalu gave a recital at London's St Lawrence Jewry church as part of the City of London's New Generations series. Financial Times: "In the English-language repertoire the young New Zealander is already a fully formed recitalist, as ripe a character for the comic songs as a matured artist twice his age." The performance was broadcast on BBC Radio 3.
(10 July 2003)
 

Big Ted gets bigger
NZ baritone Teddy Tahu-Rhodes is receiving great acclaim as the Don to Opera Australia's Don Giovanni. "He sings like an angel but there the resemblance ends. He does a nice line in depravity […] radiating malignant, seductive energy and dramatic control, to which his vocal control [forms] an apt parallel: smooth when it can be, vice-like when it has to be." Compatriot Jonathan Lemalu also features in the production.
(3 January 2003)

Knickers name
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa sang with the late Harry Secombe, who found her name tricky, so re-christened her "Tin Knickers". 
(12 April 2001) 
 

Scottish Butterfly 
"The evening's most accomplished performance comes from the New Zealand tenor Ian Storey, whose Pinkerton is sung with rich and fluent tone and acted with a rare warmth and understanding."
(8 December 2000)

Dame Kiri at the Meyerson Symphony Centre
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, star soprano, is appearing in a recital in Dallas. "In recitals it's a partnership—you and your pianist partner performing for each other. I love that give-and-take, that wonderful feeling of comradeship. It's like chamber music."
(09 September 2000)

Grand dame's swansong 
After 40 years enthralling audiences the world over, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa will give her last operatic performance next April at the Cologne Opera in Germany, playing Marschallin in Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier — a role that she has made her own. Dame Kiri, 65, said of the Cologne performance: "It will be my last. It's not as if I want to do it on a regular basis now, because it's exhausting." The soprano's last performance in a full staged production was in the title role of Samuel Barber's Vanessa in Los Angeles in late 2004 — an appearance that many at the time assumed was her operatic swansong, but Dame Kiri insists she never retired. "The press retired me," she said. "I have not been singing opera very much but I still sing a lot of concerts." Te Kanawa became a household name in 1981 when she was heard by 600 million people singing at the wedding of the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer. 
(12 August 2009)

Adieu to a comedienne 
Opera singer Heather Begg, a mezzo-soprano who last month was made a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, has died in New South Wales, aged 76. Begg was the first person to have her honour redesignated by the Queen of England since New Zealand moved this year to reinstate knighthoods and damehoods. Born in Nelson in 1932, Begg won the 1955 Sydney Sun Aria contest before moving to London to study at the National School of Opera. British critic Hugh Canning called her the "mistress of comedy" for her roles in operas such as La Fille du Regiment, Patience, Fra Diavolo and Le Nozze di Figaro. She also shone in passionate dramatic roles such as Carmen and Princess Marina Mnishek in Boris Godunov. For a decade Begg was the principal resident mezzo-soprano at Covent Garden. She made a final cameo appearance on the stage in 2006, playing the part of the Grandmother in Janacek's Jenufa. Former singer and chorusmaster, James Christiansen, whose wife, the soprano Marilyn Richardson sang with Begg in the 1986 production of the opera Voss, says Begg was a "wonderfully funny woman with a creamy rich voice". 
(15 May 2009)

Debut at the Met 
New Zealand baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes made news again this week with a number of glowing reviews for his first role at New York's Metropolitan Opera in Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes. The New York Times said in a "notable debut", Rhodes is "robust-voiced and swaggering as Ned Keene, the apothecary who peddles quack remedies to his neighbours." In The Washington Post Rhodes "has generated a lot of buzz for his good looks, but it was his full, healthy singing that stole the show. Indeed, he outsang Anthony Michaels-Moore," who played Balstrode. And in The New York Sun "Teddy Tahu Rhodes was smooth and rich. It will be good to hear him in larger roles. What a triple-decker name!" 
(1 March 2008)

Kiri's American valedictory
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa performed in Orange County, California, in what is being billed as her North American farewell tour. Michael Rydzynski praised her engaging presence, pure tone and comic touches in a review for the LA Times. "Appearing regal yet without pomposity, the New Zealand native seemed dignified yet accessible," he writes. "She almost never acted out her songs, relying on her vocal skills to convey each text's meaning. The sole exception was during the first encore, Ginastera's "Canción al árbol del olvido" (Song of the Tree of Forgetfulness), when she executed playful, vamp-like shoulder gyrations. For the rest, her pure tone, with its superbly controlled soft upper register, alone enriched the German, French, Italian and English selections." 
(4 October 2007)

Prom date
Jonathan Lemalu and the NZSO were guest performers at this year’s BBC Proms. The prestigious annual event is held at the Royal Albert Hall and reaches a global audience of millions. Times: “Flesh and blood aplenty in Mahler's orchestral settings … And with the NZ Samoan bass baritone Jonathan Lemalu at hand, there was an eager musical rendezvous.” NZPA: “There were roars of appreciation from a good NZ contingent in the audience and the orchestra left the stage safe in the knowledge that their ‘Kiwi’ prom had been a resounding success.” The first ‘promenaders concerts’ were held in 18th century Europe. By allowing patrons to stand in the wells of tiered concert halls at a fraction of the usual price, classical music began to be accessible to a much broader audience. The practice continues today, with promenaders paying $6-$10 for a concert.
(18 August 2005)
   

Teddy fan-club on the rise 
Kiwi baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes continues to set hearts a-flutter in the opera world. The Sydney media have called him "opera's Brad Pitt," the New York Times "a cross between Paul Bettany and Viggo Mortensen" and the Washington Post "a hunkier Sting." But with acclaimed roles in Le nozze di Figaro, The End of the Affair and The Little Prince (Houston Grand Opera), Don Giovanni (Opera Australia), and Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking (San Francisco Opera) to his credit, his voice is evidently more than a match for his looks. "I can't imagine another baritone like Teddy," says Jake Heggie. "It's a big, rich voice, a classic sound where the diction is so clear. I knew right away I wanted to write the role for him in The End of the Affair. Teddy is totally comfortable with his own artistry, in his own skin." 
(26 October 2005)

Classics with an edge
NZer Geoff Sewell is the brains (and tenor) behind the hottest act to hit international classical and mainstream charts since Hayley Westenra - Amici Forever: The Opera Band. The quintet - hailing from NZ, England, and South Africa - have reached No.2 in the British classical charts, No.2 in the Australian pop charts, and performed at the Champions League soccer final, on Top of the Pops, and before the Queen at the Royal Command Performance at Albert Hall. They are currently supporting Cliff Richard on tour before making their live US debut in October.
(4 May 2004)
  

Kiri vows to remain a friend in a high place
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa has announced that she will continue singing despite turning 60 this year – the age at which she has previously said she would retire. Her chief reason is to keep the scholarship program she runs for aspiring NZ singers active and in the public eye, whether through funding or “advice, moral support, [or] asking Covent Garden just to listen to a singer where an agent either won't give that opportunity or the singer can't get in and get an audition.”
(23 April 2004)

In good company
Kiwi songstress Hayley Westenra is to join a star-studded line-up, including Jose Carreras, at Wales' prestigious Faenol Festival in August. According to organisers, Westenra's performance is one of the most highly anticipated of the event: "She is brilliant - she has sold platinum in New Zealand - she must be special."
(28 February 2003)

Westenra captivates Wembley
NZ singing prodigy Hayley Westenra accompanies Russell "The Voice" Watson to a sold-out Wembley Stadium and provides some sonar respite in a Telegraph review of Russell's talents. "At Wembley, he was joined by a 14-year-old New Zealand girl called Hayley Westenra, whose vocal abilities seem more authentic than those of Charlotte Church, and they sang the Maori Pokarekare Ana with some charm." Hayley and Russell will share the microphone again in June at New York's Carnegie Hall.
(08 April 2002)

Third time's a charm
NZ tenor Benjamin Makisi won the prestigious McDonald's Operatic Aria in Sydney after making the finals three years running. He intends to put his NZ$41,110 prize money towards enrolment in a European opera studio. Previous Aria winners include Joan Sutherland and Jonathan Lemalu - Dame Kiri was a finalist in 1965. 
(21 July 2002)