Soprano Marla Kavanaugh has been criticised for her rendition of the New Zealand national anthem at the All Blacks versus Fiji match in San Diego over the weekend.
Some described her performance as atrocious, while others warned against harsh feedback as it is not an easy song to perform live.
This not the first time she has sung the New Zealand national anthem - she performed it for Sir Peter Jackson after he received an Academy Award for Lord of the Rings and she also sang the United States anthem, the Star Spangled Banner, at New York City’s Madison Square Garden and 9/11 commemorations in Central Park.
Kavanaugh is a renowned opera and theatre singer who has worked both independently as a soprano soloist and with groups like The Highland Divas over the course of her music career.
She grew up in New Zealand.
She had earlier said she felt honoured to be able to sing the anthem at an All Blacks match, yet after receiving backlash for her performance, she told the Otago Daily Times that she wasn’t ready to talk about it yet.
Judy Bellingham, the former associate professor in voice at the University of Otago says opera singers can struggle to sing national anthems on their own - although she did note that “the quality of Kavanaugh’s voice was not what it used to be.
Bellingham says when you are singing unaccompanied, it’s very, very exposed and so unfortunately she chose a very slow tempo, which did not help and has exposed the vibrato in the voice.
[Source: News Talk ZB]
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