Te Kanawa, Dame Kiri

(tā kä´nəwə), 1944–, New Zealand opera and concert singer. Since the early 1970s she has been one of the most acclaimed and popular lyric sopranos and has appeared with London's Royal Opera, New York's Metropolitan Opera, the Munich Opera, and other major houses worldwide. Her warm voice and stage personality are striking, and she has made many recordings. Te Kanawa is noted for such roles as the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro and Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus. She was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1983.

See biography by D. Fingleton (1983).