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Grew Up Singing In South Auckland, Now Singing With The Met
Two
former students from the School of Music, University of
Auckland, New Zealand Tongan tenor Manase Latu and New
Zealand Samoan bass-baritone Samson Setu, have secured
places on the prestigious New York Metropolitan Opera’s
Lindemann Young Artist Development
Program. Samson and Manase were
offered their places ahead of thousands of applications, are
the first New Zealand and the first Pasifika singers to
participate in the world-renowned programme. While they were
due to be in New York in August, pandemic travel
restrictions have meant they started their classes in early
September, by Zoom.
The pair are members of the quartet,
The Shades, with Ipu Laga’aia (Samoa) and Taka Vuni
(Tonga), who have dazzled, moved and delighted audiences
throughout the country with performances that combine
theatre with opera, gospel and popular music, and a sense of
humour.
While Manase learned he been accepted onto the
programme earlier this year, Samson only learned of his
success in July, just as he had concluded that he hadn’t
been accepted and had decided to become a plumber. “The
pandemic had made me reflect on my future, and was just
about to enrol in plumber’s apprenticeship when they [the
Met] emailed me to ask me if was still interested,” says
Samson.
They are of course, more than excited, and to be
going together as ‘brothers’. “The fellowship is an
opportunity for young singers to work with the world’s
most recognised conductors and singers at the Metropolitan
Opera, an opportunity we wouldn’t normally not have if we
were elsewhere,” says Manase. “So it’s a chance to
develop as opera singers, with the world’s best opera
singers.”
They say none of this would have happened if
it weren’t for Circle100, a group of patrons who award an
annual scholarship to young New Zealand singers. Last year
Circle100 patron and acclaimed NZ tenor Simon O’Neill
invited the then director of the Lindemann programme, Sophie
Joyce, to hear 14 of our finest voices audition for the
scholarship.
“We had very good feedback from her and
she said she would like to link up with us in the future,
but I thought she was just being nice,” says Manase. They
were both awarded a Circle100 scholarship which enabled them
to travel to London, to study at the Royal College of Music
as Kiri Scholars. While they were there, last year, they
were both invited to go to New York to audition for the
young artist program at the Metropolitan Opera.
“We
were very shocked and didn't know what to say,” says
Manase. “But we thought, you know what, let’s go to New
York and sing for them and we did and one thing led to
another and well, we’re both heading off the
Met!”
Both agree that the world of opera present
challenges, including to be a brown face in that which has
traditionally been a very European culture. “We know what
has been going on with coloured people in the States, the
history behind the Black Lives Matter movement, however, we
will continue to pursue this opportunity,” agrees Samson.
“But it's a challenge that we know we might face, and
nothing worth having comes easy.”
Both grew up in South
Auckland, and in an environment where music was a big part
of their lives, at church, at Sunday school, at community
gatherings.
Dr Te Oti Rakena, their voice teacher at the
School of Music agrees that some cultures sustain and
encourage singing, but to become an opera singer, and of a
standard needed to be accepted into the Metropolitan Opera,
has required tenacity, discipline and
determination.
“Manase came to me at 16, very young for
a classical singer. He had excellent prior vocal in training
in school and was a high school adjunct member of the
Auckland University Chamber Choir. His voice was a young
instrument, still growing and developing, but with an easy
natural production and a beautiful free quality. What stood
out to me was that he understood instinctively what to do
with a musical phrase, how to imbue the text he was singing
with meaning and expressiveness.
“Samson came to me
later. The voice, the instrument, was stunning. Rodney
McCann, one of New Zealand’s more renowned baritones and a
close confidant of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, described it as
perhaps one of the most impressive baritone voices New
Zealand has ever produced. That and natural X-factor all
combine to make his performances memorable.”
As their
teacher, he was also struck by their willingness and
openness to learning new information and to try new
strategies for improving their singing. “They were both
very resilient, a rare and important attribute. If something
didn’t work they would just shrug their shoulders and try
again. No drama.”
He agrees that the communities
that still value singing tend to produce great singers, in
the Pacific Island communities and around the world, yet
there are also challenges to negotiating a colonial space in
which you may be “the only brown person in the
room”.
The Met is paying attention to the need for
diversity. “Like most arts organisations, there’s a
growing recognition of the need to engage and be inclusive.
How this actually manifests will be interesting, but as
headlined in many media outlets, and espoused by singers of
colour, opera can no longer ignore its race
problem.”
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