Attending the opera is a little like throwing a dinner party. There are so many little details to worry about -- what to wear, where to sit, what to say -- that it's easy to lose track of why you're ...

For Chicago opera-lovers, January is the cruelest month. With the autumn Lyric Opera season just over, and the Chicago Opera Theater season yet to begin, local devotees of the lyric muse must content ...

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa’s life began far from the glamorous world of opera. She was born in Gisborne, New Zealand, where she was raised by adoptive parents. She says her father, who owned a trucking ...

Beauty may be, as the title character of Samuel Barber’s 1958 opera Vanessa puts it, “the hardest gift to keep.” But some folks manage to keep it awfully well. Just check out the soprano in that role ...

FILE - File photo dated May 13, 2010 of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. "Downton Abbey," the world's favorite country-house soap, is getting a dose of opera. Producers say soprano Kiri Te Kanawa will appear in ...

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa gained legendary status almost overnight, following her sensational debut as the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 1971. She has since moved ...

Although she already hasn't sung publicly in nearly a year, the 73-year-old lyric soprano from New Zealand told the BBC Wednesday morning: "That's... One of the world's best-known opera stars, Dame ...

1. Verdi and Puccini: Arias, Kiri Te Kanawa (CBS). 2. The Movies Go to the Opera, various artists (Angel). 3. Hanson: Symphonies 1 and 2, Seattle Symphony (Delos). 4. Live in Tokyo 1988, Kathleen ...

“I’m 65,” says Kiri Te Kanawa, the golden-toned, New Zealand-born soprano. “I can’t say the voice sounds like it did at 35. But as long as I do music that suits me, I’m fine. If you’re a size 12 you ...

Reporting from New York — In her four decades of performing on the international stage, Kiri Te Kanawa has appeared to live a fairy-tale existence. Adopted as an infant, Te Kanawa enjoyed a modest New ...

Sunday’s episode of “Downton Abbey” on PBS featured a guest appearance by one of opera’s biggest living talents: Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. The New Zealand-born soprano played Dame Nellie Melba, an actual ...