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 through Mozart to Puccini. Arias were judiciously selected to display a still admirable trill here (in Handel's Se Pieta) and by the time Liu's Signore Ascolta closed this section, there was a warmth to the voice which caused the audience to sigh deeply in admiration, even after all these years.

After explaining how Adelaide was the first concert of the tour where she could hear clearly due to having suffered a cold and telling us how she had missed her three dogs left in care in Scotland whilst she toured, the second half of the recital was even better opening with a song each from Granados and Obradors – displaying the still rich middle register which proved so appropriate for this repertoire.

Two of Canteloube's Songs (including the much loved Bailero) gave the audience a chance to luxuriate in sheer beauty of tone and reassuring memories whilst a move to the chanson displayed the Dame's ability to convey a mood of Romance (Debussy and Hahn) or something more abstract – two songs by Poulenc (L'Hotel and Les Chemins de l'Amour) – and for me, the true highlight of the recital. Evergreen folk tunes followed with Scarborough Fair and Danny Boy before closing with Jake Heggie's witty scena, Masterclass scored to lines from Maria Callas. Here it becomes her own Vissi d'arte, her own justification for life and art. Three fascinating encores followed ranging from the beloved O mio babbino caro to the cabaret of William Bolcom and even Luther Vandross!

Dame Kiri is a rare bird indeed and refutes the idea of retirement from the recital at this stage. The diction was faultless and while her patina in certain section of her range is worn, with clever programming and timing between selections, the diva will continue to shine. But for how much longer can such intensive training be maintained to equally good effect?