Dame Kiri Te Kanawa will tonight spend her 70th birthday on the Royal Opera House stage performing in the first opera she saw at Covent Garden.
The star, who sang at Prince Charles’s wedding to Princess Diana in 1981 and recently appeared in Downton Abbey, said she was “really enjoying” playing the Duchesse de Crackentorp in Donizetti’s farce, La Fille du Régiment, which she saw Luciano Pavarotti and Dame Joan Sutherland perform more than 40 years ago. She said: “I’m loving being back at Covent Garden and re-connecting and just celebrating that I have had a wonderful career.” Dame Kiri made her debut there in 1971 and last appeared in Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra in 1997. She says this is “most probably” her full opera farewell. “But it doesn’t mean retirement. One door closes, another one opens,” she said. She would consider doing more acting. “I’m not sure I’m qualified but if I got the chance I would.”
Dame Kiri runs a foundation to encourage young singers which will this year award £70,000 to mark her birthday.
She is very proud that two Maori singers she is mentoring will perform at her post-show dinner tomorrow. The half-Maori star, who lives in Sussex, said: “It’s very important for me to try to help ethnic groups.”
La Fille du Régiment has performances to March 18.
