At home on top stages worldwide, Paris-based tenor Pene Pati and soprano wife Amina Edris jumped at the chance to work in New Zealand — and the gamble has paid off for Wellington Opera.
Manon has been a gamechanger for the company, completely selling out, which is rare, and then also selling out an extra show that was put on. It's estimated that 62% of the audience travelled in from out of town, with an estimated $2.1 million injected into the regional economy.
"Wellington Opera has done a fantastic thing, it's a show of the small guys, you know, really killing it in the industry," Pati said.
It's vindication for Wellington Opera, which failed to secure Creative NZ money in this year's funding round.
Matthew Ross, creative director of Manon, said the show is a milestone for opera in New Zealand.
"It's wonderful for Wellington but also for opera across Aotearoa."
There's no doubt the famous couple are the drawcard, with interest in Pene Pati nationwide following the release of his documentary "Tenor: My Name Is Pati" this year. It's one of the highest grossing documentaries to ever screen in New Zealand cinemas.
"It blows my mind more than anything," Pati said.
The invitation to perform with Wellington Opera came three years ago, but the pair decided they wanted to clear out their schedules to make it happen, and "so by absolute chance it happened to work out the way we wanted it to".
"I love coming home and maybe I bore my wife's ears out by saying like I really want to go home, you can't help but think about it wherever you are," he said.
He was also looking forward to seeing his family in Auckland. "They keep you humble, they keep you real, they inspire me because they are the why."
It was also a chance not only to be home, but an opportunity for the couple — who have been together for 15 years and married for ten — to perform together on stage. Both stars in their own right, their contracts mean they are often in different parts of the world. However, after performing in Wellington Opera's Manon together, they are off to San Francisco to do another Manon production, then on to Prague, Dresden and Paris together.
Edris said it was a complete fluke that all those contracts have worked out that way.
"We're super, super lucky that we get to spend all this time together, and hopefully still love and care for each other by the end of all that time that we spend together," she laughed.
A new generation watching
When 1News caught up with the pair, they were still buoyed up from the reception they got from Wellington students, mostly Pasifika, who came to the dress rehearsal. During curtain call, the St James Theatre rang out with the sound of the students' voices as they sang a Samoan song thanking them.
Pati said the entire cast were in tears.
"I was super grateful for it because it just makes you believe, and it makes you understand why you do what you do, because someone in that crowd of younger generation is looking at you saying, I want to do exactly that."
Inspiring a new generation of young Pasifika is incredibly important to him, he said.
"It was important to me to do it so that they can say, he looks like me, I look like him, I'm from the same background, I'm from South Auckland, Porirua... if he can do it, then what's stopping me from doing it."
Fifteen-year-old students Delilah Pouvalu and Shammah Leota from St Catherine's College in Kilbirnie were starstruck, thrilled to be able to speak with their hero.
"When I first saw him I was like, oh my gosh, there's a Polynesian on the stage, it was really great," said Delilah. Her words were echoed by Shammah: "It really warmed my heart to see my own people on the stage."
Pati says it was great to see the students so invested in the three-and-a-half-hour show.
"Spoiler alert, when she's dying (Manon, the lead role) we could hear some of the young kids going 'oh no'!" he says. "And that, on stage, moves you so much because that means they've locked in."
His message to young Pasifika was clear.
"Take your art, take your talent, and take over the world."
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