Dame Kiri's modesty saved from flying knickers

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa's sensibilities are safe, as is her bank balance, after the opera star won a lawsuit over concerts that she cancelled out of distaste for the spectacle of flying underwear.

Dame Kiri was sued by Leading Edge Events after she pulled out of three concerts with John Farnham, an Eighties pop singer from Australia. The Supreme Court in Sydney heard went cool on the idea after learning that female fans flung their knickers at him.



The promoter sued the soprano, her former manager Nick Grace and their companies for breach of contract, claiming A$2m (£820,000) in damages. But Judge Patricia Bergin ruled against Leading Edge because Dame Kiri never signed a contract.

Dame Kiri told the court: "I was concerned about the underwear being thrown at him, and him collecting it and holding it in his hands as some kind of trophy. How could I, in my classical form, perform in this way?" The 63-year-old, who sang at Prince Charles's wedding to Diana Spencer in 1981, realised this was a habit of Farnham's fans after watching DVDs of his concerts.

The judge ruled there was no binding contract at the time that Dame Kiri pulled out, and her concerns about Farnham's "style" had not been adequately addressed. But Justice Bergin awarded $128,000 in costs against Dame Kiri's company, Mattane, for a helicopter transfer chartered by Leading Edge so that the opera singer could travel speedily from a meeting to her 60th birthday in the Bay of Islands.