Kiri Wav

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa's magnificent soprano breathes a fresh spirit into operatic favorites by Mozart, Puccini and Wagner in this collection of arias and other songs. Per Piate, Ben Mio, O Mio Bambino Caro and Vissi D'Arte are joined by Gustav Holst's In the Bleak Midwinter and the pop classic "The Windmills of Your Mind," among others. A diverse and exciting collection from one of the finest voices of our age.

Kiri Te Kanawa does well by these songs, avoiding the billowing excesses of sentiment that in other hands (or vocal chords) can make them sound much too soggy. Although Berlioz gathered them all together under the present title, all of the songs were composed at different times for different singers, so they aren't really a cycle at all. I seldom listen to all of them at once, and you should feel free to take them in any order that suits you. "The Death of Cleopatra" is an early cantata that perfectly suits Jessye Norman's stately delivery. She's always at her best playing royalty, and if they're dying in mortal agony, so much the better.

New Zealand born soprano Kiri Te Kanawa is of Maori descent. Her earliest vocal studies were with Sister Maria Leo in Auckland. She won the Melbourne Sun contest and went to London where she studied with Vera Rozsa at the London Opera Center. It was there that she first appeared on stage as the second lady in Die Zauberflöte of Mozart. In 1969, she sang Elena in Rossini's La donna del lago at the Camden Festival.

The discography of Strauss’s last opera is not exactly crowded, but the two existing accounts provide formidable competition for any newcomer. First there was Sawallisch, conducting the Philharmonia for EMI in 1957 (unfortunately in mono) and a cast led by Schwarzkopf, Ludwig and Fischer-Dieskau. Then, in 1971, came that other supreme Straussian, Karl Böhm, with Janowitz, Troyanos and (again) Fischer-Dieskau, recorded in Munich for DG. The new Decca set brings together many of today’s leading exponents of Strauss’s roles, dominated, for me, by the unsurpassed Clairon of Brigitte Fassbaender, now alas, never to be heard on stage again following her retirement. Heilmann and Bär make an ardent pair of rival suitors, Hagegård an admirable Count and Halem a sonorous, characterful La Roche. (There is a delightful link with the past history of the opera in the person of Hans Hotter: he sang Olivier in the 1942 premiere, La Roche in the 1957 Sawallisch set, and here, at 84 when recorded in December 1993, a one-line cameo as a servant.) For many, though, the set’s desirability will rest on Te Kanawa’s Countess.

…To my ears she is at her creamy, relaxed best, evincing no strain at all. Her trill is firmly in place, her divisions clean, her tone even through its range and her arcing phrases soar serenely above the stave. This selection encompasses both dreamy, long-breathed arias and impassioned pyrotechnics…

This Solti performance is the perfect balance between classical structure and clarity with expressive warmth. … Perhaps I'd rather hear Judith Raskin or Margaret Price singing "Das himmlische Leben, but Kiri Te Kanawa is just fine in the end. … This is truly a great performance from beginning to end.

I think these songs are among the most beautiful pieces of music ever written. Compared to the absolutely unbelievably exuberant and emotional recording of Frederica von Stade/Antonio de Almeida, the tempo of most songs here seems slow, drawn out and not quite in harmony with the character of the songs. Of course, the voice of Te Kanawa is beautiful and the sound of the orchestra is rich in detail.

Dame Kiri Janette Te Kanawa ONZ DBE AC (born 6 March 1944) is a New Zealand/Māori soprano who has had a highly successful international opera career since 1968. Acclaimed as one of the most beloved sopranos in both the United States and Britain she possesses a warm full lyric soprano voice, singing a wide array of works in multiple languages from the 17th to the 20th centuries. She is particularly associated with the works of Mozart, Strauss, Verdi, Handel and Puccini…

Original arrangements of Gershwin tunes are rare these days, but that's what you'll hear in this album by Kiri Te Kanawa. Granted, the arrangements sound somewhat dated according to 21st century tastes, but that's what makes them fascinating. These were like nothing anyone else was writing when the George and Ira first brought them to life. Kiri uses a different, somewhat breathier voice than you might be used to on her classical albums, probably not the type of voice Gershwin had in mind, but I think it generally works pretty well.

By Dennis Brightwell

While Kiri Te Kanawa was still preparing for that career-defining debut as the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, she made her first Mozart disc under Colin Davis: a collection of sacred music, including the Solemn Vespers, KV 339, with its serene setting of ‘Laudate Dominum’, and Exsultate, jubilate. The Countess became the singer’s calling-card, and she repeated the role immediately in San Francisco and at Glyndebourne. The thwarted Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni followed, again under Davis at Covent Garden, before Kiri took her Countess to the Met in New York in February 1976, and sang her first Fiordiligi in Paris, in a production by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. The Paris Opera was also the location of Kiri’s debut as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte in 1977. Her leap into superstardom came when she sang at the wedding of Prince Charles and Diana in July 1981…