Kiri to sing at wedding

Press, 29 April 1981, Page 2

Kiri to sing at wedding

KEN COATES

in London The invitation to the international New Zealand opera star, Kiri Te Kanawa, to sing an aria at the Royal wedding in St Paul’s Cathedral on July 29 was a decision of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, Buckingham Palace confirmed yesterday.

“Since he is musical and likes music, he is taking a very direct and personal interest in who sings, plays and composes, for the wedding,’ said the assistant press secretary to the Queen, Mrs Michael W’all.

The Prince privately went to the opera a lot and had met Miss Te Kanawa several times, and of course had immensely enjoyed her singing, Mrs W’all said. Prince Charles is patron of the Royal Opera House Orchestra, the Bach Choir, the English Chamber Orchestra and the Philharmonia Orchestra.

The Bach Choir will sing at the wedding, and plans are being made- for musicians from the three orchestras to form an orchestra for the occasion. “The choice has been the Prince’s and he has asked

people with whom he has been personally involved to take part,” Mrs W’all said. Prince Charles let slip while in New Zealand his admiration for Miss Te Kanawa’s singing and his invitation to her to sing at the wedding.

But this was an unofficial aside and Buckingham Palace had remained silent on details of who would take part in the ceremony until yesterday when the “New Standard’s” London diarist said that the Master of the Queen's Music, Malcolm Williamson, had curiously not been asked to write a piece of occasional music for the wedding.

The diarist also said the ceremony at St Paul’s would include a set of responses composed by the organist, Christopher Dearnley, and Miss Te Kanawa would sing a solo.

Miss Te Kanawa is “naturally honoured and very pleased to have been asked,” according to her manager, Mr John Davern.

She is singing the title role in "Arabella,” by Strauss, which opened on April 9 at the Paris Opera, and between performances is recording.

Buckingham Palace said that the title of the aria Miss Te Kanawa would sing had not been decided. The music and the form of the service would be announced about mid-May after Prince Charles returned from his five week overseas tour, Mrs Wall said.

It would probably be sung during the signing of the register when there was always quite a long musical interlude. A waxwork of Lady Diana is in rush preparation for London’s famous Madame Tussaud exhibition. The life-size model should be ready shortly before Lady Diana weds Prince Charles on July 29, a spokesman for Tussauds said yesterday. Lady Diana has already "sat” for an hour at Buckingham Palace for Tussaud’s sculptress, Muriel Pearson, and an assistant.

The assistant took precise caliper measurements of her face, and pictures arid notes of the colour of her hair and eyes.

The waxwork will take its place at the side of “Prince Charles” in the Royal Family group at the exhibition. Members of the Royal

Family have been recorded in wax at Tussauds since King George 111 in 1803. Lady Diana’s father wishes she “weren’t marrying" Prince Charles, according to a report in the "Daily Express” newspaper yesterday. An “Express” columnist, Jean Rook, quo‘ed Earl Spencer as having told her: “I’m happy for my girl because she’s got the man she adores.

“For myself, in my heart, I wish she weren't marrying the Prince of Wales. “I shall see much less of her. She won’t have the time to come here.”

Miss Rook said she spoke to Earl Spencer at his home, Althorp Hall, in Northamptonshire, on Sunday. He had also said: “Sometimes I feel very worried, as if I’ll never see her again — later, yes, but not for the first few years when I’ll be watching her, like everyone else, on telly. “There are times I wish she was marrying an ordinary chap, so I could have her and my son-iri-law living here with me in the park,” Miss Rook wrote.