Within the fourth season trailer of Julian Fellowes' cult British period drama, Downton Abbey, comes a 2-second snip of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa as Australian soprano Dame Nellie Melba (grabbed as screenshots).
The Kiwi soprano joins the grand dames of Downton in the role of Melba, who's been invited by the Earl of Grantham for a private party performance, which kicks off on episode one, airing in the UK on September 22 and in America on January 5, 2014.
Opera stars Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Rolando Villazon have been lined up to take part in a wide-ranging BBC opera season.
They join the likes of Stephen Fry, Rick Stein and Katie Derham for Opera On The BBC, which starts on TV and radio and launches online this week.
(...)
Tenor and Popstar To Operastar judge Villazon will look at what makes a great tenor for BBC Four, while Dame Kiri will find out what makes a superb soprano for BBC Two.
This weekend, Josh Groban and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa were in downtown Los Angels for the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame 10th Anniversary concert. The two ~opera singers~ were inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame, and were joined by conductor Thomas Wilkins, Frederica von Stade, John Williams, and some other randoms. The two inductees posed below:
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Click the link below for more photos from the event!
Three of the world's most respected sopranos, Kiri Te Kanawa, Kathleen Battle and Angela Gheorghiu, are set to hit Beijing all at the same time.
One word to enteprising impresarios with a perfectly clean bill of cardiac health: Three Sopranos.
There's big money in that concept if you can avoid to have your still-beating heart ripped out of your chest by an extremely p-ed off diva.
Dame (and hawt MILF) Kiri Te Kanawa won teh War Of teh Undies we had already reported on:
Opera diva Dame Kiri Te Kanawa prevailed Wednesday in a lawsuit that sought damages from her because she had canceled appearances with an Australian pop singer after learning women threw their underwear at him on stage.
The New South Wales state Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit, which sought up to $1.5 million in damages. Te Kanawa was sued by concert promotion company Leading Edge after the planned concerts in 2005 with singer John Farnham fell through.
There was of course no need to get one's panties in a twist.
Alea Iacta Est, as they used to say in some boring Dead Old Languages class while Opera Chic was noisily popping bubblegum, reading French Vogue and listening to Puccini on her Discman: Dame Kiri Te Kanawa (just "Kiki" for Opera Chic, we're best buddies and go shopping for Manolos a lot together in Chelsea -- note to our NYC readers: the nice Chelsea, the one in London) got her knickers in a twist and pulled out of 3 concerts with Australian pop singer (unknown to OC, and she suspects she didn't miss a lot) John Farnham.
The flawlessly polite Dame was afraid the audience would -- ewwwww -- throw underwear at her.
Opera Chic, who would never ever part with her handmade, custom-made Cadolle (crappiest le website ev4r with the cheesiest muz4k, but best lingerie in the world) undies just to throw them at some hairy, overfed tenor, cannot understand the ruckus (except for Juan Diego: she buys cheap panties at her neighborhood open-air Via San Marco market, and throws them happily at her Peruvian opera crush).
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John Farnham video here. More here.
Opera Chic has managed not to throw her panties at the screen. She almost threw a (full) can of Diet Coke, though.
^^^^^update^^^^^
Our dear Jessica Duchen, the most generous woman on the Internets, finds the time -- in her schedule busy with the writing of beautiful novels & erudite newspaper stories, and the feeding of Solti the Cat -- to give OC a shout out in her Kiri post: thanks Jessica!