This biography has been re-published in full with permission. Licensed by Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
Born: 6 March 1944, New Zealand
Died: NA
Country most active: International
Also known as: Claire Mary Teresa Rawstron
On 1 December 1971 the young Kiri Te Kanawa took the operatic world by storm when she made her debut as the Countess in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at Covent Garden. On stage with her that night were fellow New Zealanders Noel Mangin (in the role of Bartolo) and Heather Begg (as Marcellina).
Her progress to that point was a very New Zealand story: a childhood in Gisborne, a move to Auckland to study with singing teacher Sister Mary Leo, success in the Mobil Song Quest and the Melbourne Sun Aria competitions, and farewell concerts in New Zealand before study at the London Opera Centre under the caring eye of James Robertson.
Te Kanawa graced the stages of the most illustrious opera houses in the world for over four decades. She chose to sing the role of the Marschallin in Richard Strauss’s Der rosenkavalier in Cologne in 2009 to mark her retirement from opera – though she continued to give concerts subsequently.