TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Te Kanawa's Singing Spellbinds Audience

ADVERTISEMENT

By KURT LOFT, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 10, 2008

Updated: 02/10/2008 12:12 am

TAMPA - One thing you can say about soprano Kiri Te Kanawa's recital Saturday night at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center: She's no Britney Spears.

Unamplified, unadorned and unflappable, Te Kanawa held 2,300 people in her grasp with nothing more than incandescent vocals, her sweet, opulent sound polished over a career spanning four decades.

Walking onto the Morsani Hall stage in a flowing blue-green dress, Te Kanawa offered a program in five languages that stressed refinement, versatility and finesse. Like Jose Carreras on the same stage some years back, Te Kanawa made a statement about how a great singer can still be vital by embracing different shades of the repertoire.

The result of her Opera Tampa appearance was a veritable lesson to young divas on how to sing, while mesmerizing the rest of us with the sheer beauty of her instrument. At 63, she no longer commands the world's opera houses or possesses her youthful power and range, but her delivery remains natural, fluent and disarmingly lyrical. No wonder she still fetches up to $120,000 for a 90-minute recital.

Accompanied by pianist Jonathan Papp, Te Kanawa proved she still has plenty of chops, and uses them well by easing into a seasoned style of singing in which nuance trumps spectacle. This was obvious from the four Mozart songs that opened the night, her diction precise and her tone secure and projected with confidence.

But the real excitement began with a set of Strauss lieder, especially the hushed poetry of "Tomorrow" against Papp's delicate arpeggios.

If some in the audience were hearing Te Kanawa for the first time, others have tenaciously followed her career in opera houses and on record. The New Zealand-born daughter of a Maori father and Irish mother, Te Kanawa made her big splash in 1971 at Covent Garden as the Countess in Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro," raising eyebrows with her total commitment to both character and music.

Yet it was her last-minute substitution for an ailing Teresa Stratas three years later at the Metropolitan Opera that secured her reputation as a major talent. As an interpreter of Mozart, Strauss and Verdi, Te Kanawa in her prime was impeccable.

She seemed to hold on to that prime Saturday night with her soft rendering of the traditional "Scarborough Fair," and her humorous approach to Copland's "Why Do They Shut Me Out of Heaven?" which was a joy both to hear and watch. The best came with her singing a tender melisma against Papp's playful fingering in Guastavino's "Rose and the Willow."

Te Kanawa saved the liquid legato of the Italian song for last, sounding creamy as butter in Puccini's "Morning Song."

Reporter Kurt Loft can be reached at (813) 259-7570 or kloft@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT