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Home / Entertainment

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa's final curtain call

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5 Mar, 2014 01:51 AM2 mins to read
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Dame Kiri Te Kanawa has announced her cameo in La Fille du Regiment at London's Royal Opera House will be her last.

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa has announced her cameo in La Fille du Regiment at London's Royal Opera House will be her last.

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa is about to take her final operatic curtain call.

The soprano, who turns 70 on Thursday, has told British broadcaster ITV that her cameo in La Fille du Regiment at London's Royal Opera House will be her last role.

"It's a small part so it's not going to take up too much of my energy - apart from my knees. My knees don't like the stage at all now.

"There's relief that the pressure is off. It's a very, very high energy job and a lot is expected of you - you're really expected to do ... more than you can cope with sometimes.''

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She likened her career to a freight train: "We just kept going and going and this is getting off time''.

The production ends on March 18.

Dame Kiri is making her return to Covent Garden after a 17-year absence to play the Duchess of Crackentorp, a role that is normally non-singing, but has been rewritten to allow her to sing an arietta.

The Guardian says in its review that despite the role deviating from the original: "Most people won't give a damn. Te Kanawa is operatic royalty and, especially for those who heard her in her prime, it's a joy to welcome her back,'' writes Martin Kettle.

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Dame Kiri made her debut at Covent Garden debut in 1971 and achieved global recognition when she sang at the marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana 10 years later to a worldwide TV audience of 750 million.

Last year she played the part of Dame Nellie Melba in the television period drama Downtown Abbey, and is reported to have reduced the cast and crew to tears when she sang on set.

View: The life and times of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa:

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa performing for the crowd in the Auckland Domain during the SkyCity Starlight Symphony concert, 2008. Photo / Martin Sykes
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa singing Je disquerien from Bizet's opera Carmen in a concert. 1993. File photo / NZ Herald
Opera star Dame Kiri Te Kanawa with her father Tom when she received her damehood in 1983. File photo / APN
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. Photo / David Venni Photography Ltd
New Zealand soprano Kiri Te Kanawa as Desdemona in the opera Otello. 1974. File photo / NZ Herald
Dame Kiri gala event at Auckland Vector Arena, 2011. Photo / Michael Craig
Kiri Te Kanawa after performance of Carmen. 1969. File photo / NZ Herald
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa thanks Jonah Lomu on stage at the Gala concert at Aotea Centre to launch the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation in 2004. File photo / Sheena Haywood
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa on stage at Aotea Centre, 13 September 1990.File photo / NZ Herald
Kiri Te Kanawa and Inia Te Wiata rehearsing in 1970. File photo / NZ Herald
Kiri Te Kanawa at the Auckland Domain for her homecoming concert, 1990. File photo / NZ Herald
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa offers a grape to a friendly male Kereru at Wellington Zoo, after launching the Kereru Discovery Project at Te Papa in Wellington, 2006. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Dame Kiri with the sculpture she unveiled on 10 September 1990. File photo / NZ Herald
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Dame Malvina Major at their first ever performance together at Auckland's Aotea Centre, 2004. Photo / Sheena Haywood
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa singing to crowds during the Ruamano concert in Gisborne to celebrate the dawn of the new millennium. File photo / NZ Herald

Image 1 of 15: Dame Kiri Te Kanawa performing for the crowd in the Auckland Domain during the SkyCity Starlight Symphony concert, 2008. Photo / Martin Sykes

Although calling time on her opera career Dame Kiri still has a busy year in front of her. In May and June she takes her 70th Birthday Gala showcase around New Zealand.

In 2009 she told the Daily Telegraph she was eyeing operatic retirement because she found the job too exhausting.

- AAP

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