KIRI TE KANAWA RETURNING TO N.Z.

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31277, 25 January 1967, Page 2

KIRI TE KANAWA RETURNING TO N.Z.

(Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.)

LONDON, January 24.

The Maori soprano, 22-year-old Kiri Te Kanawa, wearing a scarlet trouser suit and gold boots ran into the lounge of the London Opera Centre and said how thrilled she was at the thought of seeing New Zealand again.

“I’ve been homesick for a year now,” said Miss Te Kanawa, whose reason for going home is to take part in the two-week New Plymouth “Festival of the Pines” next month.

She will fly from London on Friday, and will sing a

selection of arias at the festival on February 11 and 13. Miss Te Kanawa, who trained for six years under Sister Mary Leo, came to Britain last March as winner of the “Melbourne Sun” aria contest, and is now a student at the London Opera Centre. “It’s been a wonderful year,” she says, “but I’m dying to get back to the open spaces and some good food.” The best thing about London, she says, is the fashion. “Clothes are so cheap. I adore the trouser suits, and the mini-skirts are fun—although I often find them too cold ” What she does dislike about England is the food. English food, she complains, is nearly always processed and full of starch. She always buys New Zealand meat in London “but It’s never quite the same.” In her year with the opera centre she has sung Dorabella in Mozart’s “Cosi Fan Tutti,” the Marquis de la Bouette from “Le Roi l’a Dit” by Delibes, and Eleonara in Wolf-

Ferrari'S “The Inquisitive Women.”

I Audiences in London, she I says, are very receptive. No matter how obscure the piece [ may .be, there is always somelone ready to appreciate it. She will return to England 'at the end of February. On March 15 she will sing Dido tn Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas” at a British week to be staged at Caen, France. She will continue to study at the opera centre for a further year, but, she says, “New Zealand is very near and dear to me” and she will always return home.