Now is the hour

The hottest new name in Maori music is ...Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. The opera star talks to Desmond Sampson about gettting back to her roots on a new album.

THE past few years have been inauspicious for Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. An unauthorised biography, Kiri: Her Unsung Song, unearthed unsavoury allegations about her career and personal life, then her 30-year marriage to Des Park collapsed amid rumours of his numerous affairs.

Fortunately, 1999 has been better for Dame Kiri. She's more popular than ever and is set to usher in the new millennium with a dawn performance at home, Gisborne. She's also just released a new album, Maori Songs, a passionate collection of traditional tunes.

"I'm so proud of this and all the hard work and love that's gone into it," grins the diva, accepting the first copy of her album at its London launch this week.

"I hope it's going to be loved by everybody."

If the adulation of the album's producer, John Fraser, is any indication, then Dame Kiri's optimism is well-placed. He heard her singing Po Karekare Ana on an Air New Zealand advertisement and was smitten. From that moment, he was determined to produce an album of her singing Maori songs.

Fittingly, Po Karekare Ana is one highlight of the album, along with modern interpretations by Auckland blues and folksinger Mahinarangi Tocker and Herbs' sometime frontman, Dilworth Karaka, of Hine e Hine, Matangi and Po Ata Rau (Now is the Hour).

"Working with them was great," says Dame Kiri. "They were all so hardworking — they'd come in at 10 in the morning and not leave until midnight sometimes. It made me feel like I did the least. But although the sessions were all heads down and hard work, there was a lot of laughter, too.

"Singing in Maori was hard, though," she admits. "It's different from doing Italian opera. For example, with arias you use your whole body and a lot more energy. If I did that with these songs it would have drowned out everyone, which I didn't want to do. I wanted to harmonise with the group, not overpower them, because they had a wonderful sound.

"Doing this album was totally different from the Maori songs I did in the 60s," she continues. "They were more stylised, whereas these ones, I think, are ethnically correct.

"They're as authentic as we can get — far more than if we'd done them 10 years ago when they'd have been more westernised, with an orchestra backing."

A striking example is Tarakihi (The Locust). It's a stirring anthem, which is no doubt why it was adopted by ITV as its signature tune for the recent Rugby World Cup.

"Was it? I didn't know that," says Dame Kiri, sheepishly. "It's a pity that our babies didn't win then, isn't it? If they had, the record would have got even more coverage," she laughs.

Her disappointment at the All Blacks' defeat is tempered by the knowledge that this song, as part of her dawn concert with the NZSO, will likely usher in the new millennium. It's a performance that's expected to attract a billion viewers across 54 countries — the largest TV audience in history.

It'll be a career highlight, eclipsing Dame Kiri's performance at Prince Charles' and Princess Diana's wedding, when she attracted an audience of 600 million.

"It's an enormous responsibility," she agrees. "Can you imagine? All those people watching what's going to happen. Our performance had better be good!

"The orchestra flies in from Wellington at midnight, and we'll rehearse from 1 am to 4 am," she explains.

"Then we'll have breakfast and the concert will start at 5 am. We'll be on the beach, with the sea behind us and hopefully when the sun rises it'll shine straight on to the stage. It should be magical.

"I think it'll be different from the Royal Wedding because that was a joyous occasion.

"I feel the millennium will be a very spiritual, individual, quiet time. People will be waiting for something to happen; they'll be waiting with hope and apprehension about what the new millennium will bring. I will be, too."

Dame Kiri has been planning this performance for a long time. In fact, because she's in such demand, she had to arrange it more than two years ago.

"Despite my busy schedule, I'd always planned to be back in New Zealand for the millennium because I wouldn't want to spend this Christmas or New Year anywhere else," she says.

"I didn't know what I'd be doing until recently, but I knew that somewhere along the line I'd get involved since Gisborne's the first place to see the sunrise and also because it's my home town. It's one of those fatalistic, 'It just had to be' things," she smiles.