Kiri Te Kanawa

Speaker 20:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive.

Speaker 20:05

For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in 1980, and the presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:30

This week, our castaway is the soprano, Kiri Te Conaway.

Presenter0:34

Now, Kitty, did you find it difficult to narrow your choice down to eight?

Kiri Te Kanawa0:39

Oh, terribly, yes.

Presenter0:40

Did you have any kind of plan to work on?

Kiri Te Kanawa0:42

Yes, I have well, my own small plan, which was I have a serious side to me and a a very non serious side, so I thought

Kiri Te Kanawa0:49

If I'm going to be cast away on this island, I better get down to the nitty gritty, because I can always be foolish, you know, while I'm there, but I better take a little bit of the serious things with me.

Presenter0:57

You play records a lot at home.

Kiri Te Kanawa0:57

Yeah.

Kiri Te Kanawa0:58

Yes, a lot. As much as I can. We haven't been able to find the hi-fi system for about eighteen months, actually.

Presenter1:03

Oh, you've been moving, haven't you?

Kiri Te Kanawa1:04

Yes.

Presenter1:05

Is it turned up now?

Kiri Te Kanawa1:06

Oh, it is. It's it's come up very well. Only I can't find the tapes now.

Presenter1:09

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Presenter1:12

What's the first record you've chosen?

Kiri Te Kanawa1:13

I've chosen a Albanone, the Adagio.

Kiri Te Kanawa1:16

When I first came to this country, it was almost the first music I heard, and we were doing it to the movement classes at the London Opera Centre.

Kiri Te Kanawa1:23

And I was convinced I was Isadora Duncan when I was doing it, and this music sort of makes you feel like that. But I was uh.

Kiri Te Kanawa1:30

Really brought up with a fright when I saw myself in the mirrors.

Presenter2:17

The adaggio in G minor for strings and organ by Albinone, arranged by Giozzotto.

Presenter2:23

And it was conducted by Karl Ristenpart.

Presenter2:27

Now, you're from New Zealand, Kitty. W what part of New Zealand?

Kiri Te Kanawa2:30

I come from a little town called Gisbon.

Kiri Te Kanawa2:33

It's very, very tiny, and it is really a farmer's town, and there's no sort of great industry looming there or anything. It's by the sea, isn't it? Hm, right on. Captain Cook called it Poverty Bay.

Presenter2:41

Yeah.

Kiri Te Kanawa2:44

Because the Maoris attacked him.

Presenter2:46

Now your name is is is a Maori name.

Kiri Te Kanawa2:48

Mm-hmm.

Presenter2:48

Your father, of course, he's the the Maori side of the family.

Kiri Te Kanawa2:51

Yes.

Presenter2:52

What does it mean?

Kiri Te Kanawa2:53

Well, some people say Takanawa was a chief.

Kiri Te Kanawa2:57

And that he was very proud, very handsome. Of course, you know, no one's ever ugly in these myths.

Kiri Te Kanawa3:03

And um the the tribesman didn't like him very much, so he was ousted from the tribe and sort of started his own small tribe. And uh that's where I supposedly come from.

Presenter3:09

Mm-hmm.

Presenter3:13

I believe your mother comes from a very distinguished musical family.

Kiri Te Kanawa3:16

Yeah.

Kiri Te Kanawa3:17

She comes from the Southerns Sullivans, not the Southerns, oh gosh. That's that's the Australian lot, isn't it?

Kiri Te Kanawa3:23

Arthur Sullivan was her great uncle, on the feudal side of the family.

Presenter3:30

On the future.

Kiri Te Kanawa3:30

Do you know they're always fighting?

Presenter3:31

Oh yes.

Kiri Te Kanawa3:32

Dreadfully.

Kiri Te Kanawa3:33

And um she came from that. So she said that they never got on or something.

Presenter3:36

Was the family musical?

Kiri Te Kanawa3:38

Well, mamma used to be very, very proud that she could read anything on the at the piano.

Kiri Te Kanawa3:43

and her sister and brothers would all play some sort of brass instrument, and they di it was a real mining town type environment where she lived. Quite poor, too, really.

Presenter3:53

Did you hear a lot of music as a child?

Kiri Te Kanawa3:55

Yes, a normal uh entertainment was for everyone to sit round the piano, as in Victorian times. Now we do happen to have television out there and have for many, many years.

Kiri Te Kanawa4:05

But in my childhood it was sitting around the piano or sitting on on the beach with a bonfire, singing with a guitar, piano, whatever, you know, you could get some sort of instrument, just singing and making your own entertainment. So I was surrounded

Kiri Te Kanawa4:18

By music of all sorts.

Presenter4:20

And you began piping up quite early at this point.

Kiri Te Kanawa4:23

Yes, I was yes, I was uh always asked to sing, you know, how voice will travel.

Presenter4:27

Yeah.

Kiri Te Kanawa4:28

Yeah.

Presenter4:28

Were you put to music lessons?

Kiri Te Kanawa4:29

Uh

Kiri Te Kanawa4:31

Yes, very quickly. I at the age of seven I was put to the piano. I hated it right up to the last days that I pulled out from playing.

Kiri Te Kanawa4:38

But it was it was good for me.

Presenter4:40

What about school? A lot of music there?

Kiri Te Kanawa4:42

Um

Kiri Te Kanawa4:44

No, mainly music at home. I would always have s uh piano lessons at the schools because I was brought up a Catholic and went to Catholic schools of course and taught by the nuns. Then my mother decided that I was going to sing. I didn't decide because I really not very good at making decisions anyway. And so she she escoated me up to Auckland where I went to Dame Sister Mary Leo to start learning.

Presenter4:52

Yeah.

Kiri Te Kanawa5:07

uh singing and piano and everything I could and I just sort of took it up full time.

Presenter5:11

I believe you started working on radio very early.

Kiri Te Kanawa5:14

Yes, I think I was m maybe five or six. Five or six? Yes.

Presenter5:17

What?

Kiri Te Kanawa5:19

Not quite. I don't I was actually a child bass, I think. I say very low voice. You can I still have a very low voice.

Presenter5:24

Yeah.

Kiri Te Kanawa5:27

But it seemed to go up as I got older.

Presenter5:29

Well, there you are a a professional at that age. So let's pause here for your second record. Watch that.

Kiri Te Kanawa5:35

Well

Kiri Te Kanawa5:36

Mozart has played a major part in my life, and I would love to hear the flute concerto number one.

Presenter6:38

The Mozart First Flute Concerto, Richard Adeni, with the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Raymond Lepard.

Presenter6:45

So you were in Auckland studying singing, doing bits and pieces on radio. What next?

Kiri Te Kanawa6:52

Next came competitions. We they're like our Steadfords, but your Steadfords here in in England are of a much grander scale.

Presenter6:58

Wales, really?

Kiri Te Kanawa6:59

Yes, yes. They w they called them a Steadfords out in New Zealand and Australia. But it was sort of small competitions which you got around and you got a sort of a silver plated cup for this prize slinging the the aria from

Kiri Te Kanawa7:12

Oberon or something, you know, Ocean the Almighty Monster, at the age of nineteen or twenty, which is ridiculous. You know, you do some stupid things when you're young.

Kiri Te Kanawa7:21

Um I went into all these competitions.

Kiri Te Kanawa7:24

And I I gained first prize in nearly all of them, and I went in for a radio competition which I suddenly discovered I wasn't terribly good with recording of my voice, and I thought, My goodness, I'm going to have to work on this.

Kiri Te Kanawa7:36

Then I went to Australia and I went into the Melbourne Sonaria and the Sydney Sonaria, which I became first in Melbourne, second equal in Sydney with a boy who was already over here, Tom MacDonnell.

Speaker 47:48

Oh yeah.

Kiri Te Kanawa7:48

We became equals second.

Kiri Te Kanawa7:51

And uh then of course I came to England after that.

Presenter7:54

Still in your teens, I believe, with prize money and New Zealand Arts Council grant with mother.

Kiri Te Kanawa8:01

Yes, with mother, always with mother.

Presenter8:03

So what happened to you in London? You went to the opera centre, you said, which very sadly has disappeared.

Kiri Te Kanawa8:06

Here's the

Kiri Te Kanawa8:09

Yes, very sadly. But it's sort of not really disappearing.

Kiri Te Kanawa8:12

Still

Presenter8:12

Ready?

Kiri Te Kanawa8:13

No, there's a music college coming out of it. connected to Covent Garden, which is marvellous.

Presenter8:18

Now, you were a Metzo in those days. When and who discovered that you weren't really a Metzo?

Kiri Te Kanawa8:25

Well, we had a master class with um Richard Bonning and he came with Joan Sutherland and he said, You know, my dear, you're not a mezzo, you're a soprano, which is a very simple way.

Kiri Te Kanawa8:36

I suppose of of getting me out of the the fix that I was already in where I didn't know where I was going. And I suddenly had a new

Kiri Te Kanawa8:43

Sort of goal, I thought, well, if I'm going to be a soprano, I might as well work at it. And then it started off like that.

Presenter8:46

And then it's

Presenter8:48

That meant rethinking things a bit.

Kiri Te Kanawa8:50

a lot, you know, um because I was thinking all mezzo things and I wasn't liking it very much and my first pants role was not very successful and I didn't like any of this this sort of thing.

Kiri Te Kanawa9:00

I wasn't really built to be a medso.

Presenter9:03

How long were you at the centre?

Kiri Te Kanawa9:04

Four years in all, I think.

Presenter9:06

And then

Kiri Te Kanawa9:06

Longer was a longer student, older student.

Presenter9:10

Time to go out into the great big world. What what was the first step, your first appearance?

Kiri Te Kanawa9:15

The first appearance outside London Opera Centre were little things. You know, there's always this gap. And then suddenly I'd done a lot of auditions at Covent Garden and

Kiri Te Kanawa9:24

They said to me, Would you like to sing Flower Maiden in Parsifal? I said, Yeah, yeah, I'll sing anything, anything, you know. Covent Garden I thought, This is it, the Mecca.

Presenter9:28

Uh

Presenter9:29

Anything

Presenter9:30

Come on.

Kiri Te Kanawa9:33

And when I walked through the door the first day I thought I was

Kiri Te Kanawa9:36

Just the best.

Presenter9:37

Had they told you there's more than one flower mill

Kiri Te Kanawa9:40

No, but it didn't seem to matter at that time. I was so enamoured, I was really starstruck.

Kiri Te Kanawa9:45

And stage strike, everything. When I walked through that door, I thought I was just so wonderful. Of course, you know, I've come down to earth since then.

Presenter9:52

It's a magic place, nevertheless.

Kiri Te Kanawa9:53

It yes, it is, isn't it from there on.

Kiri Te Kanawa9:56

They had me doing this and then Senia in Boris good enough. And then of course my my big sort of start was the Countess.

Presenter10:04

Right. We'll talk about that in a minute. Let's have another record, your third.

Kiri Te Kanawa10:09

But I can't have Mozart without Strauss or Strauss without Mozart. It's my great love and I've discovered Strauss for myself and Mozart's helped me. So yes, of course.'Cause please can I have the total

Presenter10:19

This is Rick and Strauss.

Kiri Te Kanawa10:24

By Richard Strauss.

Presenter10:25

Death and Transfiguration.

Presenter11:25

Richard Streis's Death and Transfiguration, Furt Wengler conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Presenter11:32

Tell me some of these.

Presenter11:34

Early little things you did while you were still um playing small, very small parts at Covent Garden. You went up to Northern Opera, didn't you?

Kiri Te Kanawa11:42

That's right, I did Carmen up there. This is before I really got to thinking that I was.

Kiri Te Kanawa11:48

Totally a soprano. See, by this time I hadn't discovered this wonderful singing teacher who I'm

Kiri Te Kanawa11:53

Deeply indebted to. I think everyone needs a singing teacher. Not everyone agrees with me, but I happen to need.

Kiri Te Kanawa12:00

Desperately a singy teacher.

Presenter12:01

A sort of musical guru.

Kiri Te Kanawa12:03

Yes, I suppose so. You you need a spare pair of ears and she also has an insight into acting and

Kiri Te Kanawa12:11

All sorts of marvellous things that you don't know come into singing because she treats it like a like an athlete. My throat specialist says you've got an athletic throat, which is literally a singing throat, you know, and you've got to treat it like an athlete. And so athletes need coaches and people to work them out, and you know, masseurs and all sorts of things like that. I happen to need.

Kiri Te Kanawa12:33

and have uh great devotion to my very very good singing teacher.

Presenter12:37

I haven't mentioned his name.

Kiri Te Kanawa12:38

Oh, it's a lady, she's Hungarian, and her name is Vera Rosha.

Presenter12:43

Your big opportunity at Covent Garden, of course, the the count is in the marriage of Figura.

Kiri Te Kanawa12:48

That's right.

Presenter12:49

Was that the first time you had sung it?

Kiri Te Kanawa12:51

No, I had a trial run in Santa Fe.

Kiri Te Kanawa12:54

about uh six months before.

Presenter12:57

Yeah.

Speaker 412:57

Mm-hmm.

Kiri Te Kanawa12:58

While Covent garden were training me in the role, I was obliged to learn it in Italian.

Kiri Te Kanawa13:03

then learn it back into English for Santa Fe, then come back to England and learn it in Italian again.

Presenter13:09

Yeah, it's that much.

Kiri Te Kanawa13:09

It was pretty hard.

Kiri Te Kanawa13:11

Mm, it was. But it was a wonderful trial run and I had a

Kiri Te Kanawa13:14

A good go at it before I did it at Covent Garden because really it is very daunting to go in first off major role.

Presenter13:21

Yes. After those, what, two or three very small parts?

Kiri Te Kanawa13:24

Yes, it was it was a frightening

Presenter13:26

And you made a very big impression, as you know.

Kiri Te Kanawa13:26

You made a bit of a drink.

Kiri Te Kanawa13:29

Well, it was rather it was rather nice, I mean I mean, I I think I actually impressed myself by being able to sing through it. It was, to me, the most enormous part to sing.

Kiri Te Kanawa13:39

I've since discovered it's not quite as enormous as I thought.

Presenter13:42

Record number four.

Kiri Te Kanawa13:44

Number four. Well, someone I've admired always through uh my singing life is Janet Baker, and I'd love to hear her sing the Berlios Viernel from Les Nuidite.

Speaker 413:57

Bienwernigarovocre des

Presenter14:42

Janet Baker singing Villa Nell

Presenter14:44

A setting of a poem by Turfield Gautier by Berlioz.

Presenter14:49

Now, you made your big success, your first big success, at Covent Garden. Doors were opening. What happened next?

Kiri Te Kanawa14:57

Well

Kiri Te Kanawa14:58

I don't think very much if I look back on it, but of course I started to start to believe that I was reasonably good.

Kiri Te Kanawa15:05

And I thought, no, this is not right, so I quickly went back to Vera.

Kiri Te Kanawa15:10

And I started

Kiri Te Kanawa15:11

going really hectically at singing lessons again.

Kiri Te Kanawa15:14

I thought an overnight success wonder, whatever you call it,

Kiri Te Kanawa15:18

Can't happen like that. It shouldn't be as easy as that, if you know what I mean. It wasn't easy. It was a big year's build up and everything.

Kiri Te Kanawa15:25

And so I started studying even more.

Kiri Te Kanawa15:29

with voice and everything.

Speaker 415:31

Yes.

Kiri Te Kanawa15:31

And of course no one really realizes, and I certainly didn't even at the time, that I had literally one role, which was figura.

Kiri Te Kanawa15:39

The Countess, that's all ahead.

Presenter15:42

When did you first sing Des Lamina in Otella?

Kiri Te Kanawa15:46

First was Scottish opera and it must have been about a year afterward to eighteen months.

Presenter15:50

That was your second major role, wasn't it?

Kiri Te Kanawa15:51

Yes, it was some CS up and Scottish. It was it was good. Another

Kiri Te Kanawa15:55

Dry runners, they say, but with a marvellous cast. We had Charles Craig and Peter Glossoff, which is pretty amazing.

Presenter15:58

Uh

Presenter16:01

Pretty amazing.

Kiri Te Kanawa16:03

Yes, I was

Presenter16:05

And what were your next major roles at Coven Garden?

Kiri Te Kanawa16:08

The next one came I think was um

Kiri Te Kanawa16:11

Simone Bocanegra, would it have been?

Presenter16:14

Um I have to figure out

Kiri Te Kanawa16:14

I did Figaro again, I know, and then it I did something like Simone, but then I started to record Don Giovanni Elvira.

Kiri Te Kanawa16:22

And I

Kiri Te Kanawa16:23

I think it was Bocaneger and then came Elvira on stage because I recorded El Vira before I sang it. El Vira.

Presenter16:29

Elvera in Don Giovanni. And

Kiri Te Kanawa16:32

Mm-hmm

Presenter16:32

Um, Carmen's mate, now that you've stopped playing Carmen, you are Mikaela.

Kiri Te Kanawa16:35

Yeah.

Kiri Te Kanawa16:37

Yes, yes. In a lovely uh production with um

Kiri Te Kanawa16:41

Schulte, it was a wonderful experience for me.

Presenter16:45

What about Gleinborn? How much have you worked there?

Kiri Te Kanawa16:47

Not very much not as much as I would like.

Kiri Te Kanawa16:50

I did Figaro for two years running there, as I did with Covent Garden.

Kiri Te Kanawa16:54

Uh Gleinborn was one of the very happy periods of my life, I must say it. But it was in a fantasy world because I remember not long after, having not had holidays for four or five years, I suddenly came to my end, my crunch, and sort of had to take a three month break because of overwork and

Kiri Te Kanawa17:11

You know, once you've got on it, it was a merry-go-round. It's constant, it's continual.

Speaker 417:14

It's continual.

Kiri Te Kanawa17:16

Gotta learn a new role, gotta revive something, and it just goes on and on and on. I love every minute of it, but sometimes the work pressure is

Kiri Te Kanawa17:24

Too much, especially if you have a happy home life and a wonderful family life.

Presenter17:27

And of course soon after you arrived here you were married.

Presenter17:31

And now you have a family.

Kiri Te Kanawa17:32

And now

Kiri Te Kanawa17:33

Yes.

Presenter17:34

Your debut at the Metropolitan New York, that was rather dramatic, wasn't it?

Kiri Te Kanawa17:38

That was a yes, another goody.

Kiri Te Kanawa17:41

I don't seem to sort of go into things very lightly. I don't seem to be sort of.

Kiri Te Kanawa17:44

I land.

Kiri Te Kanawa17:46

By parachute somewhere. It was nineteen seventy six that and it was the first night of this particular season, which was a frightening thing. It was the ninth of February, I think, to be exact.

Kiri Te Kanawa17:57

And they rang up from the Met at eleven o'clock, and it was a two o'clock start. And I remember I said to the girl who was staying with me, I said, If it's the Met, tell them I'm out, and she did, of course, which was the silliest thing. And I said, Would she please ring us back as soon as she gets back? Of course the telephone was down by this time.

Kiri Te Kanawa18:13

And so I waited for a few minutes and thought, my goodness, you know, this can't really be true.

Kiri Te Kanawa18:19

And they rang back within about ten minutes and uh they said you're on.

Presenter18:22

What was the opera?

Kiri Te Kanawa18:23

Or tallo.

Presenter18:24

Des Demona?

Kiri Te Kanawa18:25

Yes.

Presenter18:25

which you had done previously with Scottish opera.

Kiri Te Kanawa18:28

That's right.

Presenter18:29

How long before?

Kiri Te Kanawa18:30

That was about three years before.

Presenter18:32

So you had three hours' notice to sing a part that you hadn't thought of really for

Kiri Te Kanawa18:32

We have three

Kiri Te Kanawa18:36

Through one of the best hotels in the world, of course, John Vickers.

Presenter18:39

John Vickers.

Kiri Te Kanawa18:39

Under James Levine. And the Metropolitan is another daunting opera house. You can't just sort of.

Kiri Te Kanawa18:47

pop in there and sing a couple of numbers, you you've got to be really good and I was

Presenter18:51

And you haven't seen the production, you didn't know anything about the sets and who went on where?

Kiri Te Kanawa18:51

Do you happen to see an

Kiri Te Kanawa18:55

I'd seen the dress rehearsal actually. I went to watch that.

Kiri Te Kanawa18:59

Because they they had me come over much earlier to see all of this and prepare for.

Presenter19:04

You were going to play Des Demoner eventually.

Kiri Te Kanawa19:06

I was going to do it, yes, I was going to do it one month later.

Presenter19:09

Mm-hmm.

Kiri Te Kanawa19:09

But um

Kiri Te Kanawa19:11

It happened one month earlier and then I didn't of course do it for another month, which was really frightening because I was going up the wall. I thought, Now I've done one and there's not another one available unless she cancels.

Speaker 419:23

Hmm.

Kiri Te Kanawa19:23

Uh so I had to wa wait out the month, and it was a terrible time.

Kiri Te Kanawa19:27

And I it was a very lonely period because I tried to bring my husband in England.

Kiri Te Kanawa19:31

And he wasn't at home.

Kiri Te Kanawa19:33

and everyone was away, but every one was away, and they were all going to come for the first night.

Kiri Te Kanawa19:38

on the fifth of March or sixth of March or whatever it was.

Kiri Te Kanawa19:41

And I'd I've already done it. So I rang up the next day and I said, Guess what's happened? I've made my metropolitan debut with nobody knowing it.

Presenter19:50

What else have you played at the Met?

Kiri Te Kanawa19:52

I've done Alveira.

Kiri Te Kanawa19:54

And by chance, of course, I did it at Covent Garden before I did it at the Met. The Met was also going to be another first, Alvira, so.

Kiri Te Kanawa20:01

And then I did figura.

Presenter20:03

Yes.

Kiri Te Kanawa20:03

Now I'm going back to Ducosi and

Kiri Te Kanawa20:05

Things like that.

Presenter20:06

And other parts at Cotton Garden, looking at my list here, you played Arabella, registrarizes Arabella. And of course Fledermas, we know about Fledermas because you've televised it twice.

Kiri Te Kanawa20:17

Yes.

Kiri Te Kanawa20:18

Yes. Well, this year in Fledemaus I did a a funny. Sir John Tooley asked me to sing in the gala, the final performance in Fledema. So I came out in Tyrolean mountain climbing.

Kiri Te Kanawa20:29

gear, with rope, horn, and live goat.

Presenter20:32

Live code.

Kiri Te Kanawa20:33

Live goat.

Kiri Te Kanawa20:34

and sang Climb Every Mountain. But I w it was announced that I would sing Sempre Libre from La Traviata.

Kiri Te Kanawa20:41

by Jonathan Summers, who was Australian, and of course he said it in the broadest Australian accent, which is really very, very funny. I was killing myself before I got on stage. And then I walked out with this goat named Sally

Kiri Te Kanawa20:53

It was terribly well behaved. And I thought, what am I doing here? This is crazy. This is a foolish thing to do, but I loved every minute of it.

Presenter21:04

Write your next record, which is what?

Kiri Te Kanawa21:07

My next record is well, I like um strange things and I like rather primitive sounds, and I think this next recording is that in that it's and brings up my little bit of Catholic training. Missa Criola.

Kiri Te Kanawa21:20

Please.

Speaker 421:21

Today. Um

Kiri Te Kanawa21:22

Uh

Kiri Te Kanawa21:24

In my

Speaker 421:31

Senior Men so

Speaker 421:43

Emaleno Soul.

Presenter21:52

The Kyrie from the Missa Criolla conducted by the composer Ariel Ramirez.

Presenter21:59

Now we talked about

Presenter22:01

Your television appearances inflatomize.

Presenter22:04

Have you done much uh television opera?

Kiri Te Kanawa22:08

Yes, I did um Marriage of Figaro and uh Marriage of Figaro for Southern Television as well. Unitel did the other Marriage of Figaro.

Kiri Te Kanawa22:15

which hasn't been shown in this country and I'd love it to be shown because it is really, very lovely. It's a Ponnell production of his normal production of um

Kiri Te Kanawa22:24

Figure out.

Presenter22:25

And you've appeared in the Joseph Lozzi film of Don Giovanni, of which there's a certain amount of

Kiri Te Kanawa22:30

Yeah.

Kiri Te Kanawa22:32

Not to be confused with Mozart's on you, honey.

Presenter22:34

Exactly. That's what they said in the Times. But that hasn't been shown here yet.

Kiri Te Kanawa22:39

No, I hope it will be some time. It's bringing opera reviving opera, I think. And Losie, who didn't really see the opera or never saw it, only heard of Fritz

Kiri Te Kanawa22:49

A recording of it.

Kiri Te Kanawa22:51

I think did a fantastic job on location in all Palladio settings.

Presenter22:56

Yeah.

Kiri Te Kanawa22:56

Beautiful costumes, the soundtrack is wonderful.

Presenter23:00

Was the opera recorded first and then you mimed, as it were, to the track?

Kiri Te Kanawa23:04

Yes. Yes, it was. We recorded it six months before, I think, in Paris in a really rather dingy church.

Kiri Te Kanawa23:12

And then we went on location.

Kiri Te Kanawa23:15

I must say, after I'd finished the film, I didn't want to see any Pilates in my life again.

Presenter23:18

How long did it take?

Kiri Te Kanawa23:19

Well, it took them, I think, three and a half months. It took me six to seven weeks, but it was quite horrendous the scheduling. No rehearsal because there wasn't any time.

Presenter23:23

But it was

Kiri Te Kanawa23:29

And it was done as a truly cinema type film with one camera only, which is the true evidently.

Presenter23:35

Yeah.

Speaker 423:35

Yeah.

Kiri Te Kanawa23:37

way of doing films.

Kiri Te Kanawa23:39

According to Lozy Cinema.

Kiri Te Kanawa23:41

And I believed it because there was one cameraman, one pair of eyes, where if you had seven cameramen you'd have seven different versions of what they wanted.

Kiri Te Kanawa23:50

It I think it's a truly beautiful film.

Presenter23:52

What you have lined up for the future.

Kiri Te Kanawa23:55

For the future I have uh new

Kiri Te Kanawa23:57

Romeo and Juliet in Paris. Incidentally, I happen to love Paris very much. I love French music very much as well.

Presenter24:04

This is the guno, Rome, drunk. Yes. Oh, lovely.

Kiri Te Kanawa24:05

Yes. Oh, lovely. Yes, beautiful. And I I love the French uh chanson and the au vern all that sort of thing, that sort of music and stuff.

Kiri Te Kanawa24:13

Then I have um uh Rosen Gavalier coming up.

Presenter24:15

At Comgun.

Kiri Te Kanawa24:16

at Paris first and then Cavent Garden, I hope.

Presenter24:18

You're going to be at Coffin Garden quite a lot this year.

Kiri Te Kanawa24:20

And this year, yes, I do.

Kiri Te Kanawa24:23

Magic flute?

Kiri Te Kanawa24:25

and a new Bocanegra.

Presenter24:26

Pray code number six.

Kiri Te Kanawa24:28

Number six. Well, this is a little bit naughty, I'm sure, but I li happen to like Anna Russell. I went to see her live.

Presenter24:35

We all

Kiri Te Kanawa24:36

Really? I'm glad you do. And she's giving her version of Rheingold.

Speaker 424:41

The sea opens in the River Rhyme.

Speaker 424:45

In it.

Speaker 424:49

And swimming around there are the three Rhyme Maidens, a sort of aquatic Andrew sister.

Speaker 425:02

and sing their signature tune, which is as follows.

Speaker 425:12

The whole

Speaker 425:16

I won't translate it because it doesn't mean anything.

Presenter25:20

A Bagnerian Lecture by Anna Russell.

Presenter25:25

We've been talking about opera all the time. What about concerts and recitals? How important are those in your career?

Kiri Te Kanawa25:30

I find they're very important for the pure vocal technique.

Kiri Te Kanawa25:34

One tends to in opera forget about technique quite often in order for effect.

Kiri Te Kanawa25:39

operas, that sort of thing. Sometimes you've got to sort of show blood in order to be convincing.

Kiri Te Kanawa25:46

And with a concert it is just pure singing. My singing teacher says that the Mozart is uh the lubrication for your voice, and I believe it, as concerts are

Kiri Te Kanawa25:56

The stimulation for your brain and the things that you need to convince yourself that you haven't lacked or.

Kiri Te Kanawa26:03

Slackened off in any area, you can still hold, say, an audience and sell a song.

Speaker 426:09

Yes.

Kiri Te Kanawa26:09

That's what I'm interested in is is to give over a song.

Kiri Te Kanawa26:13

And for people to receive it as I would give it out, I'm not doing it just to sort of just sing it, because it's just a song.

Presenter26:19

From the way you speak, it sounds rather as if the concerts are a support for your opera. And does that mean that opera really is more important?

Kiri Te Kanawa26:28

But I think it is really. But the concerts keep it going.

Kiri Te Kanawa26:32

To keep keep my vocal technique going. But you could put it much better than me anyway. Why couldn't I say that?

Presenter26:39

Next week.

Kiri Te Kanawa26:41

Next record is uh the Chieftain's recording of the Women of Ireland, which once again has got a very primitive sound. I love this this rather natural primitive sound.

Presenter26:51

This was from the film Barry Lyndon, wasn't it?

Kiri Te Kanawa26:54

Yes, yes. I love it very, very much.

Presenter27:26

WOMEN OF IRLAND BY THE CHIEFTINS. Now you're in the sunshine on this quite pleasant island. Could you look after yourself? Are you good with your hands?

Kiri Te Kanawa27:34

Absolutely, yes. The brain is a bit sort of fuzzy, but the hands are fantastic.

Presenter27:35

Really?

Presenter27:38

You could rig up a shelter.

Kiri Te Kanawa27:39

Oh yes, all of that. I'm terribly practical.

Presenter27:41

Food, no problem.

Kiri Te Kanawa27:42

No problem, no, no. I could fish, yeah.

Presenter27:43

You've learned some, have you?

Kiri Te Kanawa27:45

Oh, he saw of that. Slept in the in the open with my dad uh while we went trout fishing in uh New Zealand. I slept there under the stars in a sleeping bag and cooked the freshly caught trout on the open fire. I can do all of those things.

Presenter27:57

Handle small bit?

Kiri Te Kanawa27:59

Oh yes, yes, all of that. I rode when I was eight seven, so I can

Presenter28:03

Would you try to escape?

Kiri Te Kanawa28:04

Oh, no, whatever for? I've been trying to get there for so many years I think I'll stay.

Presenter28:10

Your last record, we've had no opera yet.

Kiri Te Kanawa28:13

Well, why should I take a long opera when I've got it all sticking up there? I've had to work at it for so long.

Kiri Te Kanawa28:19

Give me a little bit of light relief and

Presenter28:21

Right. Watch the light relief.

Kiri Te Kanawa28:23

Well, may I dedicate this to all the old people in the world who possibly have finished their work and in retirement are bored with life.

Kiri Te Kanawa28:31

to not give up hope, because I have a most wonderful father. He's seventy five years old.

Kiri Te Kanawa28:36

He works a twelve hour day for me, you know, in the house and things like that, cutting down trees and things like that. And I'd like to to vote it to

Kiri Te Kanawa28:45

All those old people who might have given up hope, because life is still worth while, you can still do things for yourself.

Kiri Te Kanawa28:50

And here's this darling Louis Armstrong, who never gave up.

Kiri Te Kanawa28:53

Singing What a Wonderful World.

Speaker 429:01

I see trees of green.

Speaker 429:05

Red and growth is too

Speaker 429:09

I see them blue.

Speaker 429:12

By me and you.

Speaker 429:14

And I think to myself

Speaker 429:20

What a wonderful world!

Presenter29:23

Louis Armstrong.

Presenter29:25

If you could take only one disc out of the eight.

Kiri Te Kanawa29:28

Please may I have Mozart and I can do my Isadora Duncan.

Presenter29:31

The Mozart looked concerto.

Presenter29:34

Can you just

Kiri Te Kanawa29:34

You can just imagine it, can't you?

Presenter29:37

And you're allowed one luxury?

Kiri Te Kanawa29:39

Well, I'm a a compulsive entertainer and I love to cook.

Kiri Te Kanawa29:45

And I have a funny thing I buy knives, so I must have a frustration in me to stab something. But every first night I buy a black handled knife, and I've got quite a collection, so please may I take all my knives.

Presenter29:55

A collection of knives.

Kiri Te Kanawa29:56

Yes, one of those blocks. It's a wooden block you can buy and the knives stick inside. It's all got little slits and I think I've got twenty of them.

Presenter30:04

This is for cooking.

Kiri Te Kanawa30:05

For cooking, yeah, all shapes and sizes. There there's serrated um long salmon knives, uh chopping knives, or all sorts of little short knives.

Presenter30:07

Is the

Presenter30:13

If you'll promise just to use them for cooking and not for building huts, not to use them as shopping.

Kiri Te Kanawa30:17

All right. I'll keep them in the chopping block.

Presenter30:19

That's fair enough. And one book apart from the Bible and Shakespeare, which are already there, and not a big encyclopedia, please.

Kiri Te Kanawa30:27

I've thought very seriously about this.

Kiri Te Kanawa30:29

Wouldn't like to waste my time. I'd like war and peace in French. And please could I have a dictionary, English French dictionary?

Presenter30:35

Oh, that's fair enough.

Kiri Te Kanawa30:36

Need that be allowed?

Presenter30:37

Mm-hmm.

Kiri Te Kanawa30:37

Then you see if if I had it in French, I could learn French and I could put it back into English and all that sort of thing, I I wouldn't be wasting my time.

Presenter30:44

No, indeed you wouldn't.

Presenter30:45

And thank you, Kiritai Kanawa, for letting us hear your Desert Island Discs.

Kiri Te Kanawa30:50

It's been a lovely day, thank you.

Presenter30:52

Goodbye, everyone.

Speaker 230:59

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For more podcasts, please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.