She made Maggie Smith cry

Dame Kiri te Kanawa was 70 years old yesterday! To celebrate that fact, she appeared on stage in a new production of Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden last night for the first time in seventeen years, although it may turn out to be her last.

In a typically camp twist, her role as the Duchess of Crackentorp (normally a non-singing part) has been rewritten to allow her to sing an arietta.





Martin Kettle, in his review for The Guardian, says that despite the role deviating from the original: "Most people won't give a damn. Te Kanawa is operatic royalty and, especially for those who heard her in her prime, it's a joy to welcome her back!" Here she is, talking about the production:

Kiri Te Kanawa and Kasper Holten on La Fille du régiment

Dame Kiri made her debut at Covent Garden in 1971 and achieved global recognition when she sang at the marriage of Prince Charles and Princess Diana ten years later to a worldwide TV audience of 750 million. In an interview for ITN she says this is “most probably” her full opera farewell. “But it doesn’t mean retirement. One door closes, another one opens,” she said.



Last year she played the part of Dame Nellie Melba in Downtown Abbey, and is reported to have reduced the cast and crew to tears when she sang on set.

Here are a couple more examples of her impeccable craft:

With Frederica von Stade singing a lovely duet from Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutti:

Kiri Te Kanawa & Frederica von Stade - Guarda mia sorella

And the rare full 50 minute video of The Sorceress (Arias by Handel):

Kiri Te Kanawa - The Sorceress

La Fille du Regiment is at the Royal Opera House until 18th March 2014.

Dame Kiri Janette Te Kanawa ONZ DBE AC (born 6th March 1944)

Balls to success

"The first note he sang was taken with such delicacy, swelled by minute degrees to such an amazing volume, and afterwards diminished in the same manner to a mere point, that it was applauded for full five minutes. After this he set off with such brilliancy and rapidity of execution, that it was difficult for the violins of those days to keep pace with him." - music historian Charles Burney, as quoted in A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900)

Carlo Maria Michelangelo Nicola Broschi, known as Farinelli, was famous in the 18th century as the world's greatest castrato. A strikingly gifted singer with a range of more than three octaves, Farinelli was given little choice but to sacrifice his manhood in exchange for his art.

He became famous across Italy for the purity of his soprano vocal skills, often performing en travesti (in women's clothing), and was acclaimed by audiences in Rome, Venice and eventually Vienna. It was from here that he received his most famous call - from none other than George Frederic Handel - to join the great composer's Academy in London. He was so adored by theatre audiences, noble patrons and critics alike that at one stage in the 1730s his earnings reached £5000 in a season, and cultural references were made to him by Hogarth and Voltaire.

From such fame, he received the most lucrative offer of his career - and left London to become personal chamber musician to the Spanish King Philip V and Queen Elisabetta. Farinelli gave nightly private concerts to the royal couple and organised performances by professional musicians in the royal palaces. In 1738 he arranged for an entire Italian opera company to visit Madrid, a spectacle so popular that the Coliseo of the royal palace of Buen Retiro was remodelled, and became Madrid's only opera house.

After the deaths of Philip and his successor King Ferdinand, Farinelli relocated to Bologna, where he lived in retirement from 1761 until his death. His estate included gifts from royalty (including the French King Louis XV, who gave him his portrait set in diamonds) and numerous paintings including works by Velázquez, Murillo and Jusepe de Ribera.

One can only imagine what a Farinelli performance must have been like, but here, from the 1994 film about his life, is what I would guess to be a fair approximation:

Farinelli - Handel - Lascia Ch'io Pianga

Farinelli (24th January 1705 – 16th September 1782)

Crowning Glory

60 years today since The Coronation...

Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, cond. Sir Neville Marriner - Zadok the Priest [Handel]

Gawd bless HM The Queen!