KEY POINTS:
New Zealand's opera diva and its popera darling perform in Auckland this weekend - weather permitting.
But Dame Kiri Te Kanawa has no intention of sharing the limelight with Hayley Westenra.
An icy blast puts the youngster firmly in her place, as Dame Kiri says: "Have you heard Hayley? She's not in my world, she's never been in it at all."
Speaking to Canvas magazine, Dame Kiri decried the popular operatic style that Westenra has taken to the top of the charts in Britain and New Zealand.
"They are all fake singers, they sing with a microphone.
"People call them up-and-coming, but they never last. They are the new fakes for the new generation."
Dame Kiri is to sing at the Starlight Symphony in the Auckland Domain tonight, and Westenra will perform with Dave Dobbyn in a concert at the Villa Maria Estate tomorrow.
Westenra would not be drawn on Dame Kiri's comments, but appears to have outlasted the diva's observation that "these people, two or three years and they're gone".
The blustery weather did not keep Dame Kiri from a rehearsal last night, but Starlight Symphony organisers say they will decide today whether to postpone until tomorrow.
Anyone hoping to enjoy both singers might then have to choose whose words they'd rather hear.
