‘You have to pinch yourself'

Two laid-back bros from South Auckland are turning heads at one of the world’s premier opera houses.

- CHERYL PEARL SUCHER

It’s an arctic New York morn-ing, snow has fallen and the temperatures are diabolically frigid when I Zoom-interview the New Zealand-Tongan tenor Manase Latu and the New Zealand-Samoan bass-baritone Samson Setu, the first Pasifika Kiwis to be accepted into the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Programme. It is Sunday, one of the pair’s few days off from the jam-packed schedule of in-person coaching, scene rehearsals, production stagings and auditions that comprise this coveted two-year apprenticeship.

The two exuberant self-described bros from ÅŒtÄhuhu and Manurewa in South Auckland don’t seem bothered by the weather, or the mask mandates that have recently been reinstated because of the spread of the Omicron variant. They are similarly relaxed about the fact that they are following in the footsteps of such heralded Lindemann graduates as Stephanie Blythe, Christine Goerke, Mariusz Kwiecien and Dawn Upshaw. They thank me for telling them they can order genuine Kiwi grub from Dub Pies in Brooklyn.

Latu, 25, whose buoyant cheeks and mellifluous speaking voice hint at his gorgeous lyric tenor, explains that he met Setu in one of their first vocal seminars at the University of Auckland. “We’ve been through most competitions together, studied together in London and now we’re together in New York. It has been a bit of a roller coaster and two are better than one.”

Setu, whose first name seems preordained by his powerful mane of curly black hair, tells me, “Our journeys are very similar. Our respective teachers back in high school identified something in us, encouraging us to pursue careers as classical music singers.”