Standing ovation for Dame Kiri

Press, 25 September 1982, Page 24

Standing ovation for Dame Kiri

NZPA Washington The audience at the Metropolitan Opera in New York this week rose to its feet shouting and clapping after the opening performance of the new season with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa as Marschallin in Richard Strauss's “Der Rosenkavalier.” The “New York Times,” the “Washington Post,” and the “New York Post" all heaped praise on her interpretation. The critic from the "Daily News," was the odd man out, writing about her "squinty-eyed protestations.” It was the 218th performance of Rosenkavalier at the “Met,” but the first time Dame Kiri has appeared in it there. The “New York Times"

described Dame Kiri's performance as "memorable." She gave “an emotionally restrained and inward performance that put one in mind of Elizabeth Schwarzkopf’s similarly studied Marschallin," wrote its critic, Donal Henahan. "Miss Te Kanawa, whose voice is neither the largest nor the most opulent in the soprano world, is nonetheless a singer of exquisite taste and delicate sensibility." he said. The audience paid up to 5U5150 for seats, and the opening night income for the Opera was $U5372.000. Dame Kiri will sing at the Kennedy Centre in Washington tomorrow. It will be her first appearance there.