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DAME KIRI TE KANAWA - TE KANAWA SLAMS YOUNG CLASSICAL STARS
Veteran opera star DAME KIRI TE KANAWA has blasted young classical music stars including chart-topping singer HAYLEY WESTENRA, insisting their popularity "will never last". The New Zealand soprano, 64, has dismissed 20-year-old Westenra's music as "fake" and is convinced there are no talented new artists who could rival her own success. She says, "Have you heard Hayley? She's not in my world. They are all fake singers. "People call them up-and-coming but they never last. They can only perform with a microphone and they've basically never had any training." But Gray Bartlett, who discovered Westenra, is adamant Te Kanawa made the comment only because she envies the young star: "She looks great, she has done well, just get a life."
02/25/2008 12:23:24 PM
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paris77 
(1)
posted on 25/02/2008 17:37
Te Kanawa is right and the media is doing a huge disservice to the arts and to the
public by making her out to be some evil diva. There is a VAST difference between
the training of an opera singer and that of a young "popera" star. I don't have a
problem with pop singers recording and selling their crossover albums, I just wish
they wouldn't label themselves as classical artists when they are nothing of the
sort. This is why the public is so confused about what IS refined "real" singing
and what is not!
The gossipy media should hang their heads in shame for deliberately trying to tarnish
the reputation of an artist whose successful career has spanned decades, and for
contributing to the false image that "real" opera is full of stuck up sopranos and
bitter aging divas. If the public were exposed to the real thing and could see what it's
all about, I think they would understand why Te Kanawa spoke out.
We'll see who has the last laugh, but I'm willing to bet money that Hayley Westenra
won't last half as long as Te Kanawa did...
