Kiri Te Kanawa to join N.Z. orchestra on tour

Press, 14 June 1978, Page 3

Kiri Te Kanawa to join N.Z. orchestra on tour

NZPA London The soprano, Kiri Te Kanawa, has agreed to join the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra on its debut tour of Western Europe and the Soviet Union in 1980. Miss Te Kanawa told the Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Taiboys) yesterday, that she would be “delighted” to appear with the orchestra provided suitable dates could be arranged. Her acceptance virtually guarantees increased interest in the orchestra’s tour. In city such as London, which ’.as several resident, celebrated orchestras, the orchestra might otherwise have caused barely a ripple. “She is enthusiastic about appearing with ii and she indicated she would derive tremendous satisfaction,” Mr _ Taiboys said, after visiting Miss Te Kanawa at her Surrey home. “If the orchestra is going to have a successful tour, her 'illingness to participate is an ingredient that is essential,” Mr Taiboys said. Miss re Kanawa re-

garded th orchestra, which she has sung with in New Zeal. nd and Australia, as being the equal of many of Europe’s better- known orchestras, he said. The tour had been planned for 'ebruary and March in 1980, but Miss ’> Kanawa (who has a diary of engagements stretching to .984) would then have been unavailable. “We will fit in with each

other’s programmes,” Mr Taiboys said, “and it could now be the end of 1980 or even into 1981'. But the principle has been established and that’s what is important.” It was not known yet whether Miss Te Kanawa would also join the orchestra on the rest of its world-wide ' to Japan and the United States. Mr Talboys said Miss Te Kanawa’s singing with the orchestra wo aid be “a commercial arrangement. We are not asking her to sing for nothing,” he said. Money was not discussed yesterday, he said. Mr Talboys s s he only became involved in the organisation because he had never met Miss Te Kanawa before and he happened to be in London. Mr Talboys said that the tour was partly allied with the Government’s efforts to promote more strongly the New Zealand cause in Europe. “What we are trying to do is establish that New Zealand has some other identity than a pound of butter and a l“g of lamb,” he said.