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Just weeks after slagging off popera singers as fakes, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is to feature on a compilation album alongside teenage Rotorua popera star Elizabeth Marvelly.
The album, Morning Has Broken, will be released in Britain on Monday. It features some of the world's biggest names in music, including Pavarotti, Sarah Brightman and Paul McCartney.
Marvelly said she was thrilled that EMI had considered her for the album. "It is a dream to feature among artists of this calibre," she said.
Dame Kiri caused controversy last month when she took a swipe in an interview at Hayley Westenra, whose popular operatic style has propelled her to the top of the charts here and overseas.
She was reported as saying: "Have you heard Hayley? She's not in my world, she's never been in it at all."
She described popera singers as "fakes", who sang with microphones.
But 18-year-old Marvelly hit back in an interview a short time later, saying she didn't consider herself a fake.
She was surprised at Dame Kiri's comments, but didn't think they were snobby. "I think that she is speaking in relation to an art that she is dedicated to. She is well within her rights to have her opinion. A lot of opera singers don't like popera."
Dame Kiri has two songs on the new album, O Mio Babbino Caro and The World In Union, while Marvelly has one, Love Can Build A Bridge.