The sad news today that dear Dame Kiri te Kanawa is to hang up her crinolines and retire from stage performing made me think - I am so pleased we got to see her live at Proms in the Park back in 2010...
Read my previous tribute to the great Dame on the occasion of her 70th birthday.
She is indeed a great artist, and barring the unexpected, very likely among the last opera stars to have wide mass-culture recognition en style Callas, Sutherland, Sills, Horne, and Price.
ReplyDeleteShe certainly crossed "that" boundary into popular consciousness, especially in the wake of Charles and Di's wedding. Let's never underestimate, however, the potential of the likes of Miss Renee Fleming or Miss Joyce DiDonato to do similar. After all, if Katherine Jenkins and Lesley Garrett [OK, neither of them in the same league] can do it... Jx
DeleteAt least in the States, La Fleming is as close as we get, and she is indeed popular, but not quite in the starry ways or yore. As for the popera singers, I find in general the less said the better; of them, Garrett is among the more palatable, at least to me.
ReplyDeleteMiss Garrett and Miss Jenkins at least have a degree of self-deprecation; they both know they are principally "crossover" artists, and will never get a lead role in any Puccini, Rossini or Handel productions in their lives. Miss Fleming, however, has a voice that can carry all that and much, much more... She was at the Proms this year, performing Richard Strauss. Jx
DeletePeople knock Proms in the Park but we have got to see some great classical stars over the years.
ReplyDeleteWe certainly have - Jose Carreras, Juan Diego Florez, Vittorio Grigolo, the aforementioned Misses Garrett and Jenkins, Joseph Calleja, Nigel Kennedy, Lang Lang, Dame Kiri, Garđar Thór Cortes, Sir Bryn Terfel and Danielle de Niese... quite an impressive list! Jx
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