Singer praised, faintly praised

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32789, 14 December 1971, Page 14

Singer praised, faintly praised

The New Zealand singer, Kiri Te Kanawa, received high praise from Andrew Porter, music critic of the “Financial Times,” for her performance as Countess Almaviva in “Le Nozze di Figaro” at Covent Garden, but the “Guardian’s” critic, Philip Hope-Wallace, was less enthusiastic about her. Describing Miss Te Kanawa as the “new star,” Andrew Porter wrote:

“For years we have been praising this young New Zealand soprano, in London Opera Centre performances, in a South Bank ‘Betulia liberata,’ most recently as a Flower Maiden and ‘Aida’ High Priestess at Covent Garden. Yet the promise of ( these performances had hardly prepared us for . . .

well, frankly, for such a Countess Almaviva as I have never heard before, not at Covent Garden, nor in Salzburg, or Vienna, at once young, full-throated, a singer of great accomplishment and a vivid character. ‘Porgi amor’ was attacked with warm, beautiful, confident tone; the cavatina was sung out, in long, smooth, wellcontrolled lines.

( “Again to ‘Dove sono’ Miss ITe Kanawa brought her rare (command of legato, her beautiful control of the( 1 moves from note to note, and I (her lovely tone-quality. She; left a hole before the reprise • of the opening theme (though ( (in other respects she showed’ a knowledge of Mozartian notation which her col-; (leagues, stubbing out their; (‘blunt endings’ in profusion; (lacked), but almost made; (virtue of it, as herald to a( (pianissimo reprise in gentle (yet firmly supported tones.; (She could surely sing the! iAct 2 trio as Mozart wrote lit, running up to the high C ! in full voice and not ceding! it to Susanna. As an actress (Miss Te Kanawa is accomplished. She commands the( (stage, wears costumes well. She was a young, beautiful, dignified, warm-hearted and affecting Countess.” Philip Hope-Wallace wrote of “the beautiful, tall New Zealander, a stunner in the Edwardian picture postcard manner, with a voice we have noted with admiration.” But, he added, “the personality, the maturity for the character were absent, or only faintly discernible. She is too fresh an artist yet for this magical portrait of a wife experiencing first disillusion.”