Kiwi concerts ahead as Kiri farewells US

It is farewell but not goodbye from opera singer Kiri Te Kanawa.

Dane Kiri, 63, who has always detested the term "retirement", has just performed her final concerts in Canada and the United States, but insists it is not the end.

It is a "a transition into the next stage", she told the Boston Globe. "I'll never be back to America - except to see my friends," she said, "and to shop."

She said she had received a flood of letters wishing her well. "Well, I'm not retiring. It's farewell, but not goodbye."

Last month's concerts, which included New York's Carnegie Hall, have largely drawn rave review from American critics. The San Francisco Chronicle said she dazzled audiences with "her luscious, creamy vocal tone, as well as the air of serene nobility".

The soprano's career was launched in 1971 as the countess in a Covent Garden production of The Marriage of Figaro. But her most famous performance was at the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981.

Her New Zealand agent, Paul Gleeson, said that Dame Kiri still had concerts planned, including Nelson and the Auckland Domain in February.

"The chances of people seeing her sing again at Carnegie Hall are probably very slight. But that's not to say that, if there's a command performance and all the conditions were right, she wouldn't go back there."