This New Zealand diva is still well within her use by date.

Festival Theatre, Adelaide

May 18, 2014

Many opera singers have gone on past their use by dates, often ruining their reputation by outstaying their welcome with declining technique and vocal range and colour. I admit that I had approached this tour with some trepidation, but I was pleasantly surprised.

For a soprano who, at times, has relied on the sheer beauty of her voice to the expense of diction, lessons have been learned. And yes, the quality of her vocal production may be worn in places, but there is still much about Dame Kiri to applaud. Aside from the assiduous study and training that the diva still maintains, her long-term pianist Terence Dennis was the perfect accompanist – always buoyant, light of touch and seeming to breathe at one with the singer. At times his piano ranged from a delicately plucked harpsichord for the baroque selections, a bar pianist for Poulenc and Bolcom and indeed, a miniature orchestra bursting with colour and life for Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne.

Praise must be given for the quality of the program itself, which, in the first half, ranged from Scarlatti, Vivaldi and Handel...