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the 18th Commonwealth Games? But ask Dame Kiri of any vivid memory of the royal wedding and she brushes it off with typical Kiwi modesty saying, "It was akin to a car crash. I don't remember anything! I have amnesia. All I remember is that I had about eight different performances around the same time and I kept worrying that I didn't have enough time to rehearse," she recounts, subtly challenging the notion of success. Acclaimed as one of the numero uno soprano in both, the United States and Britain, Dame Kiri has been bestowed with a string of honorary degrees from prestigious universities like Oxford, Cambridge, Bath, Dundee, Nottingham and Durham. She was also created a Dame Commander of the British Empire, invested as an Honorary Companion of the Order of Australia and awarded the Order of New Zealand. Quite a remarkable feat for a young Maori girl from Gisborne who was adopted by Thomas Te Kanawa and his Irish wife, Nell! It was Sister Mary Leo, with a keen eye for talent, who first spotted streaks of brilliance in the young lady studying at St Mary's College, Auckland. Little did they realise then that she'd grow up into a charismatic opera singer who would hold international audiences in a mesmeric daze. The spectators at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Paris Opera, the Sydney Opera House, Vienna State Opera, La Scala, San Francisco, Munich and Cologne are testimony to the powerful impact she's had over her captive audience over the decades. Talking about life at full-throttle and how she finds order within the chaos, she reflects, "My life is very erratic. There is absolutely no regularity. I have an impatient streak about me. I believe that if it is not done now, fast and furious, it's not done. I'll shoot someone that doesn't do it! I'm always on the go," she says, her words rushing into one another as she talks about the last three weeks that have been a mad rush of activities in Australia and New Zealand. "I've been totally impatient," she admits. " It's simply because there is still so much to be done, so many concerts, so much life to be lived, all the different things to be looked into, so many different hotels, rooms, food!" she pauses for a second, and decides to share the most sacred hour of her day. "The only thing regular in my life is that we try to get the food on time. Half past one is the most important hour of my life. It's the magic hour! After which I take a nap on the days there is a performance. Other than that www.hermagazine.co.nz | 11 "My life is very erratic. There is absolutely no regularity. I have an impatient streak about me. I believe that if it is not done now, fast and furious, it's not done..." Kiri's last major operatic performance. Kiri playing one of her most famous roles, the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier at Cologne Opera in 2010. I don't sleep very well. I may or may not go for walks; there is absolutely no regularity in my life. I've travelled to nine cities in less than three weeks, done ten concerts, had so many flights, and spent not more than two days in each hotel bed." So what is it that propels her to achieve more? "I just like the idea of waking up in the morning and having something to do," she says with endearing honesty. "There was a time when I used to wake up in the middle of the night and make notes, only to realise that I couldn't read a word in the morning," she laughs. On a more serious note, she points out that she is now extremely focussed. "If you don't organise things and just hope that things will go fine, they won't," she says emphatically, underlining the basic rule of success. "There's no point in later saying that there is a possibility of something going wrong because it will! I'm constantly checking everything and don't leave anything to chance. I need a complete breakdown of the day. If I don't check on things, no one will. If I don't learn the music, no one is Koichi Kishi