Kiri 'lacked dash’

Press, 19 October 1976, Page 6

Kiri 'lacked dash’

NZPA staff corres London The New Zealand soprano, Kiri Te Kanawa, has been chided for not putting enough dash and power into her first recital at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. “Miss Te Kanawa is a great favourite with ample reserves of fresh tone, excellent poise, and a direct and sincere manner,” the “Guardian” newspaper review said yesterday. “But an artist already world famous could well risk more in the way of sheer theatrical dash and power.” The concert of arias from Miss Te Kanawa’s repertoire was in aid of the New Zea-

land scholarship fund for the United World Colleges. John Higgins, in “The Times,” said that although it was a much applauded, glossy charity evening, in the end it was unsatisfying. “The technique in oldfashioned nights where vocal showpieces rub against overtures and ballet suites is to give everything a little bit extra, to allow a flourish in the band and some bravura in the singing. Perhaps we have lost the touch, if not the zest, for such nights,” Mr Higgins said. Miss Te Kanawa did not strike form until nearly midway through the recital, he said, and then the “creamy, graceful” tones made him

wonder if she should not have chosen some different numbers. “The conductor, Kenneth Montgomery, was over-stolid for a concert which demanded a dash of flamboyancy. Over the beauty of Kiri Te Kanawa’s tone and musicality stand no question marks, but she needs a conductor to feed in a little more exuberance,” Higgins wrote. The “Financial Times” reviewer, however, was generous in her praise. “It is just over seven, years since Kiri Te Kanawa rowed across the stage of the Camden Town Hall and her voice is larger, more securely placed, and even more beautiful in timbre.”