Editorial: Dame Kiri misses grace note

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. Photo / Martin Sykes

Opinion

For someone who has distinguished herself as a lyric soprano, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is remarkably tone-deaf regarding her place in the cultural landscape.

In an interview in the British magazine Radio Times this week, she dismissed pop-classical singers such as Britain's Got Talent sensation Susan Boyle as "whiz-bangs" destined to fade into obscurity.

She also sideswiped the popular crossover tenor, Andrea Bocelli ("He wants to be an opera singer but he isn't").

The comments, which can most charitably be described as graceless, recall similar observations in 2008 about Charlotte Church and Katherine Jenkins ("the new fakes for the new generation") and fellow Kiwi Hayley Westenra ("Have you heard Hayley? She's not in my world. She has never been in it at all.")

There is no denying the power of a true operatic voice, which can be heard above an orchestra without the aid of the microphone that the other names depend on.

But a diva who first leapt to stardom in 1971 playing the Countess in productions of The Marriage of Figaro should reflect on the meaning of noblesse oblige.

Plainly the likes of Church and Westenra are not bidding to topple Dame Kiri from her throne. They are not "in her world" because they don't seek to be, but they have a public, just as Kiri does. For her to decry them, and by implication their fans, is not worthy of her.

It's a long time since Kiri left these shores and she has made more than her share of disparaging remarks over the years, notably about Maori.

Regrettably, she seems to have forgotten one of the things that makes New Zealanders what they are. We are proud of our achievers and we prize excellence highly. But we prize just as highly people who have the grace to wear fame lightly.