‘You have to pinch yourself’
It’s an arctic New York morning, 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 Ōtā 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 Kwiecień and Dawn Upshaw. They thank me for telling them they can order genuine Kiwi grub from Dub Pies in Brooklyn.
“Wow, a free trip to New York! We didn’t think anything of it.
