A Gala Concert In The Presence Of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa

A GALA CONCERT IN THE PRESENCE OF DAME KIRI TE KANAWA will feature the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by music director Giordano Bellincampi, together with the Freemasons New Zealand Opera Chorus and some of New Zealand’s finest operatic voices – Anna Leese, Pene Pati and James Ioelu. It will be hosted by MC Jennifer Ward-Lealand.

Limited tickets remain for this very special event on Wednesday, 20 November. Tickets available from Ticketmaster.

Dame Kiri, New Zealand’s first Grammy Award winner, opera royalty and performer on the most spectacular stages in the world, will be the special guest of honour at this extraordinary event.

Featuring some of her best-loved opera choruses and arias, and highlights from her career, the gala concert will celebrate and salute Dame Kiri’s formidable talent and contribution to the arts.

The concert will include performances of some of opera’s most spectacular arias and choruses including:

• Puccini, Gianni Schicchi, ‘O mio babbino caro’
• Donizetti, The Elixir of Love, ‘Una furtiva lagrima’
• Verdi, Il Trovatore, ‘Anvil Chorus’
• Bizet, The Pearl Fishers, ‘Au font du temple saint’ (‘The Pearl Fishers’ Duet’)
• Mozart, Don Giovanni, ‘Catalogue Aria’,
• as well as a selection of much-loved works by Wagner, Rossini, and Mascagni.

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa will be the guest of honour at the gala, and will not be performing.

A GALA CONCERT IN THE PRESENCE OF DAME KIRI TE KANAWA
Wednesday, 20 November
Time 7.30pm
Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre (previously ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre)
Bookings: Ticketmaster

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa
Kiri Te Kanawa was born in New Zealand, of European and Māori heritage. In 1965 she moved to London to study at the National Opera Studio.

Her sensational London debut in Figaro gained Kiri Te Kanawa legendary status. She became one of the most famous sopranos in the world, a familiar figure in leading opera houses including Covent Garden, the Metropolitan, Chicago Lyric Opera, Paris Opera, Sydney Opera House, Vienna State Opera, La Scala Milan, San Francisco, Munich, and Cologne.

Dame Kiri’s recordings include sixteen full operas, plus oratorios, song cycles, lieder, and three recordings of all-Māori music. As a soloist at the wedding of HRH Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in St Paul’s Cathedral, she faced one of the largest direct telecast audiences of any solo singer in history (estimated to be over 600 million people). The year 1990 saw another record set when, during a tour of Australia and New Zealand, her outdoor concert in the city of Auckland attracted a crowd of 140,000.

Kiri Te Kanawa was created a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1982 and has been conferred with honorary degrees from eleven universities including Oxford and Cambridge. She was invested into the Order of Australia in 1990, and the Order of New Zealand in 1995.

The Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation was launched in 2004 to provide mentorship, support and financial assistance to dedicated New Zealand singers and musicians. In 2010 Dame Kiri was presented with the British Recording Industry’s Lifetime Achievement Award and was named Iconic New Zealander of the Year in 2012.

In 2018 Dame Kiri was appointed a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to music.

About the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre
The new name for the theatre follows a long-held performing arts tradition of recognising an artist who has a special connection with a particular theatre, such as the Joan Sutherland Theatre at the Sydney Opera House.

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa officially opened the Aotea Centre in September 1990, unveiling a 1.6m bronze sculpture of herself by Terry Stringer that still graces the foyer today.

She was the star of the first concert to be held there and followed this with leading roles in the first two operas staged at the Aotea Centre, La bohème and Don Giovanni.

Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre is New Zealand’s largest tiered auditorium, with seats for more than 2200 theatregoers. It is the Auckland home of NZ Opera and the Royal New Zealand Ballet.

Famous performers to take the spotlight in the theatre over the years include world-renowned Russian soprano Anna Netrebko, and contemporary singers Natalie Cole, Carole King, Tom Jones, and Prince, to name a few.