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Artist
Kiri Te Kanawa
12+ albums
operaClassicalsopranofemale vocalistsNew Zealand
about
Dame Kiri Janette Te Kanawa, ONZ, AC, DBE, (IPA: /ˈkiːri ˈteɪ ˈkɑːnəwə/, born March 6, 1944) is one of the world's most celebrated sopranos. In 1981, she was seen and heard around the world by an estimated 600 million people when she sang Händel's "Let the Bright Seraphim" at the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer. Te Kanawa was born in Gisborne, on New Zealand's North Island. She has both Māori and European ancestry, but little is known about her birth parents as she was adopted as an infant. She is the adopted daughter of an Irish mother and Māori father. In her teens and early 20s, Te Kanawa was a pop star and popular entertainer at clubs in New Zealand. She was educated at Saint Mary's College Auckland and formally trained in operatic singing by the celebrated Dame Sister Mary Leo, RSM, who was New Zealand's best-known opera coach. She began her singing career as a mezzo-soprano, but later developed into a soprano. Her recording of the "Nuns' Chorus" from the Strauss operetta Casanova was New Zealand's first gold record. Kiri married Desmond Park, whom she met on a blind date in Auckland in August 1967 and married 6 months later. The couple adopted two children, Antonia (1976) and Thomas (1979, named after Kiri's adoptive father). The couple divorced in the late 1990s. Career In 1965 she won the prestigious Mobil Song Quest, entered by all types of singers, jazz, pop and classical, with her performance of Puccini's "Vissi d'arte" from Tosca. As
top songs
1
Ave Maria
13,8952Ecco! respiro appena. Io son l'umila ancella
9,6163O mio babbino caro from Gianni Schicchi
9,4714World in Union
8,0655Gianni Schicchi: O mio babbino caro
6,3116Vissi D'Arte (Tosca)
5,1517Louise: Depuis Le Jour
4,5238Quando me'n vo' soletta per la via from Act II of La bohème (Musetta's Waltz Song) (Voice)
3,6979O mio babbino caro (Gianni Schicchi)
3,47110O Mio Babbino Caro
3,463
