Hawaiian Duet

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa performed “a range of songs from the Baroque to Rachmaninoff, accompanied by friend and accompanist, Professor Terence Dennis” in a benefit concert for the Hawaii Opera Theatre in late September. “Though hailing from New Zealand to our south, the opera legend has never performed in Hawaii,” the Honolulu Daily’s Stephen Fox wrote. ‘It’s been said that my Maori blood had helped give me the basic voice and sense of rhythm which all Polynesian races have,’ Te Kanawa said. The soprano returned to her roots in 1999 with Maori Songs, recorded with a Maori youth choir.”