Alone at last

On October 16, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa will make her only appearance in New Zealand this year - a recital at the Dunedin Town Hall.

Looking back on her career, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa remembers Dunedin as a place where two things happened which were significant stepping stones towards what came later.

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"I first went there in 1965 for the Mobil Song Quest.

"Winning that was a major boost for a 21-year-old. And it was also in Dunedin that I first met the Queen - which is something you don't forget.

She admits that on her first contact with Otago in 1965 she was a bit taken aback by the cold.

"It was midwinter - July - but I adjusted to it after a while."

Central heating was not common in those days and yes, it is true that she wore trousers under her concert gown.

"I also wore a lucky greenstone pendant - and 45 years later, I still wear it."

The 1965 event was her second try at the Mobil Quest. Placed runner-up to Malvina Major two years before, she was accustomed to the idea of the judges not being visible.

"It was the same in 1963. They were in a studio somewhere else, listening just to the singing and not being distracted by anyone's appearance.

"It seemed the right way to do it. In Dunedin, they had to be brought over in cars to the hall after the performance from wherever their studio was."

The cold rapidly turned to warmth when Dame Kiri was announced on the Town Hall stage as winner of the Mobil Quest.

"There were tears, of course, and a dash to get to a phone to tell my parents back in Auckland. My father was pleased - he liked to see me doing well - but my mother was absolutely thrilled. She saw it as a step forward to the major career she always hoped I'd have."

The prize money, 300, was immediately earmarked for a fund to travel for further singing study overseas which, one year later, she did.

It was a total coincidence that Dame Kiri and Patricia Payne sang the same item for their Mobil operatic entry.

"We simply didn't know," recalls Kiri.

"Patricia chose the Habanera from Carmen, and so did I. It was a surprise."

Separated in the Mobil final by only the slimmest margin (Patricia Payne was runner-up to Dame Kiri), both women moved on into dazzling careers.

In 1965, Patricia Payne and Dame Kiri were both young mezzo-sopranos but, on the advice of James Robertson and Richard Bonyng, the young Dame Kiri's mezzo range was moved gently upwards into the soprano range, with great success.