Kerre Woodham: Dame Kiri's final cameo

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa performing in the Auckland Domain last year. Photo / Martin Sykes

The show isn't over until the fat lady sings, as the saying goes, although to be fair to the great Dame, Kiri Te Kanawa has kept her figure better than most opera sopranos. Dame Kiri announced this week that a cameo appearance at the Met in February and a role at the Cologne Opera in April will be her last operatic performances.

Given that she announced five years ago that she'd stopped doing operas, the music world could be forgiven for thinking that she'd already retired. But it's a diva's right to change her mind, and if Dame Kiri says these are her last last performances, it must be so.

And she's got a long way to go before she rivals that other dame, Nellie Melba, whose final performances lasted eight long years, prompting the Aussie saying, "more farewells than Nellie Melba".

* www.kerrewoodham.com