Westenra's achievements, as I mentioned, go largely unnoticed in New Zealand.

There is a series of best of Classical or number 1 classical…

Westenra's achievements, as I mentioned, go largely unnoticed in New Zealand.

There is a series of best of Classical or number 1 classical…

But one problem with Dame Kiri's comments and most of the discussion here…

But one problem with Dame Kiri's comments and most of the discussion here…

I remember reading an interview with a NZer who has become a big star on US TV

Alan Dale?

No, it was that Amazing Race guy, with the spiky hair. Phil Keogan (sp?) I think. His point was it can be a little... exhausting when he comes to NZ, they…

I used to hate broccoli…

There are tons of rock albums in which every part was recorded separately with a click track, endlessly repeated until it was just right. Does this perfectionism make those bands boring?

Not always, but, sadly, often. The US album charts have been full of such beautifully recorded abominations for decades.…

Mike Skinner

You've moved to Remuera? Are you going to rename The Streets to The Avenues?

.in fact only one american soprano came even close [nb: edited: just slightly too hard on the reputation for the publisher's comfort ... RB]

apologies RB.....i certainly do not wish to in any way cause any issue for you with regard to my observations/opinions etc.....
to quote southpark....
"Parental Advisory!!!!…

There are tons of rock albums in which every part…

No musos, please. Some things are more important than ability
(1988 advert placed by the first three members of Suede in the NME, prior to recruiting Bernard Butler).

The above is one of my fave quotes. Many people of impeccable musical talent, like heavy rock guitarists, produce the most appalingly…

I think that while there might be a case to answer in terms of opera's popular appeal compared to 'fake' popera stuff, I really don't think that there is in terms of actual technical skill

No musos, please. Some things are more important than ability
(1988 advert placed by the…

I saw him at Logan Campbell on the Hell To Pay tour. It was stunning.

I guess this is going on in Rack n…

Oh, I'm just sick of 'new' bands where I can guess what CDs they've been listening to over the last six months.

I agree, at least with the Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who it was what imported R&B 45s they'd been listening to in the last six months :)

Yeah, starting time has crept from 8 or so in the 80s to 11 now, for whatever reason, and it pisses me right off. In the meanwhile, the only thing to do is to have a nap before you go out.

It's just silly, actually, especially midweek. No one wants…

Wasn't there a moral panic about people in the lake when British glam rockers the Sweet played there in the 70s? You'd have to be a certain age to remember that though ...

Best concert lake story has to be Hawkwind with Bob Calvert, tripping off his nut in a…

Sing it, sister. I have a dear friend, same age as me, who frequents the Kings Arms, and is right into all the latest rock music. I simply admire her for being able to withstand all that noise.

There's noise and there's noise. You have to be able to feel…

Please tell me you didn't just say that any old amateur hoofer can dance like my Fred if they put their minds to it. Because... I really disagree.

If they devoted 2 or 2 years of full time training – 5 or 6 hours a day – they could approach…

another gem of her highnesses was witnessed at the "Bowl of Brooklands" in New Plymouth when, at sound check, she requested that the resident ducks in the pond in front of the stage were to be shot as they were interferring with her performance!!!!!....

Almost as good as when I…

One of the gossip magazines – No Idea some weekly

"No Idea" is a great for a stupid gossip magazine. I vote they all get renamed to that.

It's like the difference between classical ballet and Fred 'N Ginger. One requires a lifetime of physical discipline and dedication and the other could be mastered by an amateur, with a few scrapes and bruises, to a reasonably competent facsimile.

Please tell me you didn't just say that any old…

another gem of her highnesses was witnessed at the "Bowl of Brooklands" in New Plymouth when, at sound check, she requested that the resident ducks in the pond in front of the stage were to be shot as they were interferring with her performance!!!!!....

Now that's just funny. I'm liking…

BTW, a friend of mine who works as a field audio engineer was working on a show at the Aotea Centre years ago and happened to be near Kiri while she was rehearsing. He found it distinctly uncomfortable — she just made too much sound.

This is the real difference…

I would also take issue with the implication that classical musicians and those who love opera are not interested in any other type of music.

Hum... I wonder what the members of the Kronos Quartet — who I understand still occasionally perform their arrangement of 'Purple Haze' as an encore…

Seriously... one singer having a go at another singer in what appears to be a bit of a stupid thing to say. How is this news?

Britney is even more interesting than…

Like a gateway drug, but – assuming…

But still people are persuaded that opera is somehow "better" than popera. I don't know how people make a qualitative assessment of this: it is more complex, more demanding to perform and listen to, requires more attention and so on. But "better"?

Yes, I'd say better. I could knock up…

From the lofty heights of the opera world — where doors are opened for you and diva behaviour (rudeness, self-obsession, demanding self-entitlement) is not only tolerated and accepted but actually admired — it must be easy to look down on everyone else.

I have to say something here, as someone…

.. which I won't repeat here for legal reasons.

I salute your discretion.

I can honestly say i believe she [Kiri] is the bloated arrogant pompous rude condescending vile cow that you can well imagine she would be.

Heavens, spinner – would you stop beating about the bush! Why don't you say what you really think about her?

I read that her fellow students in London were a little envious that…

Ah, screw the pair of 'em.

Hmm.

Well, I would go with Kiri, at a pinch.

But I'd be thinking of Hayley.

As Dylan said of Guthrie "Here was music you could live your life by."

And yes, it's more intelligent than popular music – it has to be to have withstood the test of time.

Um ... no. "Intelligent" isn't the right word ... It's just more musically sophisticated and technically prodigious ...

Maybe. But couple of points.

1. I think the historical staying power…

But…

The Press was all over the Kiri vs Hayley thing as well – because Hayley is from Christchurch, and the Press feels almost duty-bound to defend to the hilt all things Cantabrian…

Of course, Kiri sounds idiotic singing popular music, so it goes both ways.

Quite. I can see that "proper" operatic singing ("propera"?) is on an entirely different level technically to what Hayley et al do, but that period when Kiri decided she wanted to be a pop singer and kept…

Have to confess I can't comment on the music of either of them.

Well, I can vouch that Dame Kiri's singing was exquisitely beautiful last weekend at Auckland's pre-eminent popera event, 'Starlight Symphony'.

Well, to paraphrase Winston Churchill on Clement Atlee, Westenra is a very modest person who has much to be modest about. :)

And I suspect if I were Dame K's husband, I would drink it...

But in the morning I'll be sober.

Have to confess I can't comment on the…

Hayley thingummy comes across very girl next door: Dame K as being more than a little up herself.

Well, to paraphrase Winston Churchill on Clement Atlee, Westenra is a very modest person who has much to be modest about. :)

It's about how NZers like our cultural heroes [I refuse to use the 'I' word].

Hayley thingummy comes across very girl next door: Dame K as being more than a little up herself.

Seriously, you think Julie Andrews is to be compared with John Coltrane because they both turned out a take of My Favourite Things?..strange logic.

Not exactly, Simon. I own several recordings of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, and I don't believe its musical and lyrical intelligence is any less significant because it…

you're begging to be compared to the pantheon of jazz and pop vocalists

Seriously, you think Julie Andrews is to be compared with John Coltrane because they both turned out a take of My Favourite Things?..strange logic.

But its not trying to be. It's a genre in its own right and shouldn't judged against either, which I think is Graham's point.

Oh, balls. The funny thing is that Kiri has one or two discs of standards and Christmas stocking fillers in her discography, and they're almost uniformly…

The real problem with "popera" is that it's not good pop and it's not good opera.

But its not trying to be. It's a genre in its own right and shouldn't judged against either, which I think is Graham's point. I don't like it and it ain't me but Haley…

The Kiri vs Hayley nonsense was a beat up by the Herald

Be that as it may, it was covered by the Australian and Asian media ( both ABC's cable news here in Asia, and the Singaporean NewsAsia channel ran it in on their widely watched news hours), and the…

And I think that while trying to compile a hierarchy of genres is a dodgy business on so many…

Most non-Auckland media has not had blanket coverage of Trinny and Susannah. Scarcely rated a mention.

Most non-Auckland newspapers still run obituaries, if they ever did.

The Kiri vs Hayley nonsense was a beat up by the…