Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is a jealous old fake!

HERE'S WHAT I THINK

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is a jealous old fake!

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is an ageing, jealous, and self-obsessed woman who suffers from delusions of grandeur.

Renowned for extraordinary snobbishness and arrogance, and successful in the class-conscious and pretentious world of opera, she believes she is better than everyone else and entitled to queen-like treatment.

She is savagely jealous of success on the part of those she sees as beneath her in talent, status, or social class, especially if such people attract attention or steal the limelight that she believes is hers by right.

Recently she made the headlines with a fatuous and incoherent attack on crossover or popera singers, with a special reference to her young compatriot Hayley Westenra. She described them as fakes who used microphones and who wouldn't last. Of Westenra she said: "Have you heard Hayley? She's not in my world. She has never been in it at all."

She also said:
"I've had a 40-year career but these people, two or three years and they're gone...."

A fascinating comment (although not the first time the Great Dame has made it) since Westenra has now been performing and recording for something like ten years.

Dame Kiri's outburst is no more than a thoughtless parroting of the same old arguments that the opera and classical purists have repeatedly used to put down popular music.

1. They use microphones
2. They will not last
3. They are much inferior to the trained opera singer

The Accusations:
Accusation 1. They use microphones:

That crossover and pop singers are fakes because they use microphones is absurd. In the situations in which crossover and pop singers use microphones, so do Dame Kiri and other opera singers.

In opera it is traditional not to use amplification, but in the situations in which crossover and pop singers perform, it would be ridiculous -- and often impossible -- not to.

Opera singers are trained to produce frequencies that lie above those produced by an orchestra. But buskers (street performers) and just about anyone can learn this technique -- if they want or need to. It is little use outside of opera, though, and more and more opera houses are making use of amplification.

Accusation 2:
Pop musicians enjoy a short time during which the public goes wild about them, and are then quickly forgotten.

An old and oft repeated myth. It is simply not true. In the literary world, where the notion of the short-lived nature of popular material originated, it does have more than a little truth to it. There is a very high turnover of popular authors most of whom are quickly forgotten. But in the world of popular music, popular musicians -- even quite minor ones -- are remembered long after their heydays, and major popular stars last indefinitely. A quick look around YouTube or other parts of the Internet will soon prove this. To compare them with opera singers is absurd because most opera singers are never widely known in the first place. A little test I did recently shows that few people -- even musicians -- have heard of Gheorghiu, Fleming, Terfel or most modern opera singers.

Accusation 3.
They are much inferior to opera singers because classical vocalism is the summit of vocal achievement:

Dame Kiri also repeated the old saw that she had reached the pinnacle of vocal achievement -- something on a far higher level than the crossover singers.

This is one of the many fallacies of the Art Music world -- that opera singing or classical vocalism is superior to other types of singing. It is not. It is simply another style of music and has itself changed and evolved. That opera or classical vocalism is somehow much superior to pop and other forms is at best silly snobbery. The sometimes near crazed desperation on the part of the classical purists to discredit the crossover singers suggests they are challenged or threatened by these singers.

Ironically, when the type of opera Dame Kiri claims is so superior first became popular, the purists of the time argued it was refined and aristocratic singing being overwhelmed by bourgeois love of spectacle and melodrama; and the popera or crossover singing that Dame Kiri so detests is arguably a reversion to that more "refined and aristocratic" style.

That the great composers meet the criteria for being considered great artists is true. That opera singers are superior artists because they sing material from the great composers is not true. If I recite Shakespeare -- however well -- it does not make me a great writer.

It is Dame Kiri and her risibly pretentious friends in the opera and classical music community who are pretending to be something they are not: hence it is Dame Kiri and the opera community who are the fakes.

Who is the Fake?

"I get a lot of pleasure and satisfaction out of giving pleasure to people through my singing; that's fantastic, but it's only entertainment."
- Hayley Westenra

Hardly the words of a fake. It is Dame Kiri and her absurdly pretentious friends in the opera community who are pretending to be something they are not. According to them, every opera singer -- however mediocre or even downright bad -- is an "artist".

What is it that makes classical or opera vocalism so much more artistic than any other form of vocalism?

Why is it that when a 10th rate opera singer sings Ave Maria it is high art, but if a pop or popera singer sings it, it is rubbish?

Dame Kiri is the fake! She is a fake who claims to be a superior artist when at best she is simply a technician who is practiced in a silly form of out-of-date Italian vocalism that was rubbished at the time it first became popular as vulgar.

Dame Kiri's Rant

Some stories reporting what Dame Kiri is supposed to have said:

Dame Kiri rips into Hayley Westenra: "New Zealand opera legend Dame Kiri Te Kanawa has slammed rising star Hayley Westenra as a fake who will not last."
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa attacks 'opera fakes': "Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, the opera diva, has launched a withering attack on singers who become celebrities by crossing popular and classical music, describing them as 'the new fakes for the new generation'".

Quote: Graham Reid

"From the lofty heights of the opera world -- where doors are opened for you and diva behaviour (rudeness, self-obsession, demanding self-entitlement) is not only tolerated and accepted but actually admired -- it must be easy to look down on everyone else. And one gets the impression Dame Kiri does."
Read All of Graham Reid's Article Here

Crossover Artists Revive the Industry

Upsetting the Olds: Classical music needs Hayley Westenra, says Paul Connolly.

"It seems difficult to believe, but Hayley Westenra, a pretty 16-year-old soprano from New Zealand, may soon find herself at the centre of an unseemly squall in the classical music world. Her debut UK album, Pure, is about to be released, and Decca has every intention of making her a huge star, something that is certain to annoy some figures in the sphere of classical music.

"The baritone Sir Thomas Allen made clear his opinion of what is known as 'crossover' classical music when he claimed that popular classical artists such as Charlotte Church, Bond and Russell Watson were a symptom of an inexorable cultural decline."
Classical music sales resurgent thanks to 'easy listening' brigade: "Crossover artists have revived the industry, helping to boost sales by a million albums, but purists aren't happy....

"For the revival, the industry can largely thank a teenage former busker from New Zealand and a Welsh farmer's son. Hayley Westenra, a pretty 16-year-old singer from Christchurch, was number one in the charts last year with her record Pure, which eclipsed Charlotte Church's record for the fastest-selling debut classical album in Britain.

"The second highest seller was Bryn, an album by the Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel, 39, who was born on a livestock farm in Pantglas, north Wales. Third place was taken by one of a number of increasingly popular compilations of classical music - The Number One Classical Album 2003 - by various artists." Andrew Clennell reports

Projecting Over an Orchestra

That they don't need microphones to project over an orchestra is one of the oft repeated remarks said to prove that opera singers are somehow superior or have superior voices to pop or other singers.

This is nonsense. It is simply the use of a technique that can be learnt by just about any singer if they chose to. Since it is of no use at all outside of opera, few but opera singers will ever bother learning it. What's more, the type of fruity, blasting type of singing that results from using this technique is not to most people's liking.

Interesting and Relevant Links

MUSIC; FINE SINGING ISN'T DEAD, IT'S JUST AN ART IN TRANSITION: "LOVERS OF CLASSICAL MUSIC usually think of singing - their sort of singing - as the summit of human vocal achievement. They tend to judge other kinds of singing in relation to classical vocalism, disdaining what is different or locking it into a category so separate that no comparisons can legitimately be made....

"But in the United States in the late 20th century, where more people probably love more different kinds of music than in any previous human culture, that highest standard need not - cannot - be verismo Italian opera of a century ago."
Westenra Wins New Zealand Young Achiever Award: "The winner of the Global Kiwis Young Achiever Award is Hayley Westenra, a 20 year old, New Zealand soprano who has been a singing sensation since first releasing an album at 16 years of age. Her debut album Pure, reached number one in the UK classical charts in 2003, making her the fastest-selling debut classical artist of all time."
Preview: Different Voices, Cadogan Hall, London: An interesting story for the writer's questioning of Westenra being used in a project because of her lack of "classical credentials".

Evidently the composer's chosing who she thinks is best for the job is not acceptable to the classical purists. Presumably a singer must have been to the right conservatory and be able to fit in well at one of Sir Thomas Allen's Hampstead tea parties before being acceptable for a "classical" job.
Opera Gives Its Regards to Broadway: An interesting article published in 1987 about the state of crossover music in those days.

Pro Te Kanawa

Malvina says Kiri didn't mean to offend: Dame Malvina Major's interpretation of Dame Kiri's outburst.
Fellow singer comes to Kiri's defence: A Kiwi opera star who has performed with Kiri Te Kanawa says there is an unfair perception all opera singers are drama queens.

Anti Te Kanawa

Brennan: Dame Kiri should apologise: A Rotorua opera singer is calling for Dame Kiri Te Kanawa to publicly apologise to Hayley Westenra and other "popera" stars for calling them fake singers.
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa's broadside is off key: Story by Sam Leith.
Sing like you're winning: "From the lofty heights of the opera world -- where doors are opened for you and diva behaviour (rudeness, self-obsession, demanding self-entitlement) is not only tolerated and accepted but actually admired -- it must be easy to look down on everyone else. And one gets the impression Dame Kiri does."

Quote: Paul Connolly, The Times Online

The trouble is that for such critics any change is bad. Keep things as they are, close your eyes and maybe those horrid young people might go away and leave us alone with our music. Could these people be any more patronising? Indeed, without the revenue generated by crossover artists, "serious" classical practitioners who sell perhaps 15,000 copies of each release might not find an outlet for their music at all. It is difficult to escape the conclusion that crossover artists are good for classical music and maybe it is this that enrages the traditionalists so."
Click Here for Paul Connolly's Article

The Use of Amplification in Opera

Opera is at a technological crossroads: An article about the use of amplification in opera.
Opera's Dirty Little Secret: More information about the use of sound systems in opera.

Dame Kiri Jealous?

Impossible, say her followers

But Dame Kiri has had a reputation since the days of her early training for giving the impression that she considers herself better than others; and for her to resent someone she sees as her inferior in talent, class, and training somehow muscling in on her territory would be natural for her.

In a recent article about Dame Kiri's outburst, Graham Reid wrote:

"From the lofty heights of the opera world -- where doors are opened for you and diva behaviour (rudeness, self-obsession, demanding self-entitlement) is not only tolerated and accepted but actually admired -- it must be easy to look down on everyone else. And one gets the impression Dame Kiri does.

"Jobbing journalists who have had the misfortune of an encounter with her -- and I am pleased I never have, tetchy Neil Young was enough -- return to tell of being kept waiting for 90 minutes or more without explanation or apology, of dismissive answers and a generally superior air. That feedback is too common for it to be just rumour and innuendo."
See Graham Reid's Article Here

The Videos:
The first video below shows Dame Kiri describing how she has come to see the Maori folk song Pokarekare Ana as her "signature tune". This song has become rather famous in recent times, but not for Dame Kiri's version. It featured on Hayley Westenra's first album, which sold over two million copies, and was used in the advertisements for the album. It has rapidly become seen as Westenra's signature tune and she has sung it probably hundreds of times, and also performed duets of the song with many other singers, including Russell Watson, Bryn Terfel, and Aled Jones.

On YouTube, for example, there must be a dozen or so videos of Westenra singing it, but only three or four of Dame Kiri.

The second video is of Westenra singing at the New Zealand War Memorial function in London. This is the type of job that Dame Kiri would once have been the only serious candidate for.

These are just two examples of the younger woman getting publicity and kudos, that, from her lofty height as a fully-trained opera singer -- someone who has (in her view) reached the ultimate in vocal achievement and ranks so far above the mere pop and popera singers of the world that comparison is impossible -- Dame Kiri may resent.

The other videos feature versions of Pokarekare Ana, one by Dame Kiri and the others by Westenra.

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Aled Jones & Hayley Westenra - Pokarekare Ana

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Hayley Westenra - Pokarekare Ana

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Hayley Westenra - Pokarekare Ana (previous version clip)

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Who is the Better Singer?

Rationally, there can be no argument about it.

On the one hand we have a singer who is very skilled in one area -- in an archaic form of Italian singing that is complicated and quite difficult to master technically, but is little appreciated outside of a small group.

This singer -- Te Kanawa -- is worse than imcompetent when attempting genres outside her speciallity and incapable of performing in a variety of circumstances.

On the other hand, Westenra is immensely versatile, and can sing more than competently in just about any genre and quickly adapt to different circumstances. It's interesting that at the age of 21 she has featured on 7 film and TV scores, about the same number as Te Kanawa in Te Kanawa's 40 year career.

The module below shows some of the versatility Westenra has.