Excuse me while I go off on a long rant about cross-over, Charlotte Church, Kiri te Kanawa, and other things...

I briefly mentioned Dame Kiri te Kanawa's small tantrum and "attack" of "opera fakes." Well now the opera fakes are fighting back!!!!! Some of it made me laugh. "Katherine (Jenkins) is looking forward to singing without a microphone in future?" "A mezzo's voice doesn't develop until she's in her early 30's?" Oh, and that's just the start! My personal favorite is: “Appreciating opera is a bit like appreciating a fine wine, sometimes you have to start with something a little light and fruity and eventually you get to your big fat burgundy.” Big...fat...burgundy? *puts hand on hip* Excuse me, who could you possibly be referring to?
They also call the crossover, popera, whatever you want to call it an "introduction" to classical music or opera. It's not. It's a substitution. Unfortunately, it is too often a substitution for opera. Do you know how many people have come up to me and said, "Oh you like opera. So, that's like Paul Potts, Charlotte Church, and Josh Groban, right?" I resisted the urge to tear out my hair. NO, THAT'S NOT WHAT IT'S LIKE.
“I can tell you now, Kiri and Pavarotti and those international singers, if it wasn’t for their compilation CDs they’d be lucky to sell in the hundreds. Now that’s the truth.”
That's another GREAT quote by "Gray Bartlett, who put Westenra on the musical map." He went on to add that Dame Kiri, THE DAME KIRI, might be jealous of the young artist's success. About the quote, who do these people think they are? Pavarotti and Kiri not singing records because the records aren't cross over? On what planet is that true? And Dame Kiri being jealous? DAME KIRI OWNS YOU. She does, really, she secretly runs the world. Why would she have any reason to be jealous of Hayley somethingorother.
I'm sorry if I seem mean or "snobbish" but these people should be jealous of KIRI, not the other way around. Just because Kiri had the determination and heart to go through years of training and those other singers evidently didn't doesn't make her a snob. This article and the "career highlights" or "mini-bio" that come at the end of the article are obviously biased and put Dame Kiri in a very unflattering light.

Dame Kiri owns the world. She rules the world. She is the world. Duh. She's amazing and everyone knows it. Her words were blunt and probably hurtful, but they were studded with truth. They may not be fake SINGERS but they are certainly fake OPERA singers. Listen to Charlotte Church's or Hayley Westenra's "O Mio Babbino Caro" and then listen to Kiri te Kanawa's and I dare you to tell me I'm wrong. They're not in the same league. They never will be. THAT'S WHY Dame Kiri was an OPERA star. She was not a popera star. These people need to get a grip and remember why exactly they are singing in halls and not in opera houses.


Happy Listening!!! =)


Oh my gosh, I'm so mean.