March 7, 2026 • 15 mins
Brothers Pene Pati and Amitai Pati began their music careers in South Auckland church halls, but now they've grown their international careers.
A new documentary Tenor: My Name Is Pati explored the duo's journey to the opera stages as Sol3 Mio stars - and how they got to train and work overseas.
Pene Pati says he was scared on the journey, but knew he would find his way.
"I often think about this - it's a bit of both. I was scared, I was fearful...but at the same time, I was confident that I could do it."
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Edb from singing in churches and some are to rest
homes in South Auckland and now the grandest opera stages
around the world. The Story of the Solomeo stars brothers
Penne and Amatai Party show what can happen when you
fight adversity to follow a dream. A new documentary release
this week follows the brothers against the odds rise to opera.
(00:32):
Fane excuse me, it is called tenor my name is Party.
Penee has traveled all the way from Paris and I'm
absolutely delighted to talk to him. Penne Party, good morning.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Good morning, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
We just played the most extraordinary version, a very very
powerful version of Nessundorma. And it's from a part in
the film where you are doing a recording. You're working
in a studio with the conductor and things, and you're
doing this recording. How hard is that process? Because throughout
(01:08):
the film you do talk about, you know, when you're
not pressinger, you are an athlete, and my goodness, this
looked like it was taking everything out of you.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
I'm so I'm so glad you asked this because and
Rebecca Tansley, the director, really put the portrayed the super well,
and she showed the hard you know, all the toughness
that goes behind it that it's so The The reason
being is because not only are you running the area
so many times so by the time everyone gets it right,
(01:38):
you've done it like eighteen times by then, but the
pressures that are on you everyone's looking at you. The
chorus are looking at you, the orchestra looking at you,
the recording company are looking at you. That you don't
falter at all because once you stop, everyone else is done.
And it's so as you can, as you saw on
the film, just this amount of sweat, the amount of tears,
(01:59):
the amount of frustration to get that one good take,
it is truly much, to the point that whenever they
say can we record this, I'm always like, ah, I
don't want to go through that again, but you gotta
do what you gotta do.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
It occurred to me watching that scene that in my
life I'm trying to embrace the imperfections more right, celebrate
being imperfect. And I watched this and I thought, oh
my gosh, you actually have to be perfect, not just technically,
but you had to put every ounce of the right
emotion into every note.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
It's extraordinary, absolutely, And by the nineteenth time you recorded,
you're not longer feeling the emotion that you had in
the first take. And it's such you know, it's it
really is, it really is. You're bringing up you're bringing
up the feelings. It's it's a tough, tough one.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Oh well, I had to start by talking about that.
But look, let's go back in time a little bit.
Solomeo so loved that band. It really did kind of
come together quite organically, didn't It as a way to
fundraise for you and you know, your family and friends
and things, to be able to travel and train overseas.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Absolutely, and that was the reason why we formed the group.
And we made mention of this.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
If we make mention of this every time we sing together,
because everyone thought, oh, this is just a boy band
group that you want to to form and it's the
time of your life, you got to go. But we
always say, no, we actually formed this just so we
can study and I encourage the boys so many times
after we always catch up and I'd say, remember, you
got to go out there be a star gain those credits.
(03:45):
We'll put the stars on your lapal because you know what,
people come back to talent. They would want to come
out and see you and your individual merit. And so
the fact that we've kind of gone our ways is
not doesn't mean that Slimio has split up at all.
They're just gone to go collect their stars and then
we come back and do it all over again.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
And a shout out to your amazing sisters as well,
who in those early days helped you manage to get
those shows up the ground. I'd just like to do
the shout out to the wonderful Long sisters.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
They deserve their flowers for sure, because the amount of
things we threw at them and they just went with it.
They begredgingly, they smiled that they were happy to help them.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
It meant though that you had to make some difficult decisions.
You put the band and your family first, and that
meant that you were making quite a few sacrifices for yourself, right.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
Yes, And in my head my thinking was the sacrifice
that I make, the things that I put aside for myself,
that means I have to do it on my own.
I can go out there figure it out on my own.
Whereas the stuff. If I sacrifice the boys, that's a
three way thing. There's a lot of people involved. It's
no longer just me. So those were tough decisions. I'm
(05:00):
glad Rebecca caught this as well, because those truly, those
truly tested tested me. Honestly, it broke me several times.
But at the same time I stuck to my conviction.
I was like, I believed in it so much that
I said, this is this is the only way I
can see this happening.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
We should explain to people that those in the opera
world had a lot of opinions about this decision of yours. Right,
you had opportunities to go and and study further and
things overseas, and you had the Boys and Solomia that
you were trying to support, and they didn't really understand
why you were choosing a pop opera crossover band, did
(05:42):
they No?
Speaker 4 (05:44):
And and you know, in anything that at such a
high level, they always talk about you have to sacrifice everything.
This is you have to just go on it and
go on it alone. And yet they didn't believe it
because they thought, why why do you even care about
those guys. They don't have your voice, they don't have
your career trajectory. Why do you care? And that wasn't
(06:05):
that wasn't the point for me. It was I just
need to be I just need to give them a shot.
That's all it is. Thankfully, what happened was they all
managed to have individual careers. And I said, this would
never have happened if that didn't happen, and the you know,
and I always say, you know, in order to persuade
(06:26):
the purists that you're doing this kind of opera crossover
is to beat them at their own game. And that
was the only way. It was the toughest path, but
it was the only way.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Were you at all concerned about turning down those opportunities
and whether you would be able to sort of step
back into the opera world or were you always confident
that somehow you'd find a way.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
A bit of both. That's a great question. I often
think about this. It's a bit of both. I was scared.
I was fearful about how I would be perceived, but
at the same time I was confident that I could
do it. I know, I saw I saw something in
the future, and my poor wife would be what was
(07:10):
so mad about my optimism? She was like, why do
you why do you do this yourself? And I said,
because it's I can see it. I can see myself
standing on a stage. I don't know how, I don't
know when, but I can see myself doing it. I
believe it so much that, no matter how hard this is,
I don't know if I could see it.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
And my gosh, you do make it and you end
up performing some of the biggest opera stages in the world,
and all net footage throughout this film just gave me goosebumps.
It's just as extraordinary watching you. I don't personally know
a huge amount about opera, So when do you know
you've made it in the opera world?
Speaker 4 (07:48):
I just got that question by someone yesterday. When do
you know you've made it? I don't know if you
truly know, will ever know? And I kind of like that.
I kind of like that it's an open ended question
because then it means you're constantly searching for something better
and bigger, you know. And someone, a kid asked me
yesterday today, actually, what's how do you define greatness?
Speaker 3 (08:09):
What is it?
Speaker 4 (08:10):
How do you know you've made that stage? And I said,
you know, I don't know if I'm ever going to
be great, but I'd love to be remembered.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
That's all I want.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I think you'll be both remembered, remembered and remembered as
great pine once you've made it, though, how hard is
it to stay there? To stay at the top of
what you do?
Speaker 4 (08:30):
And has the question You're right, getting there is one part.
Staying there is harder than even getting there. It's just
you're like right now on my phone, and the team
around me are constantly trying to say, you need to sleep.
They're trying to make sure and the car rides and
the plane rides Penne you need to sleep. But I'm
(08:50):
always looking at my music on my phone because I'm
just I just want to stay ahead of the next person.
Staying there means you have to constantly put in the work,
you have to look at You don't want to give
them an excuse to look for someone else. And it's
that means every hour of the day you're committed to it.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
There's this beautiful line in the film, and I apologize
I can't remember exactly who said it, but you'd had
very little notice. You came and filled in in the
role of Romeo at the last moment, and this person said,
it's like his joy is greater than his nerves. And
I thought to myself, I want to live like that.
Is that how you live?
Speaker 3 (09:32):
That is true?
Speaker 4 (09:33):
I'm not That is absolutely right. I mean, that is
such a good explanation to it. People say, do you
get nervous? And I said, no, I just accept that.
It's that I'm human. I'm not nervous about the errors
I would probably make. It shows that I'm human, and
I think that's what makes the art form even better.
(09:53):
If you want something that's completely perfect as perfection, we've
got Ai now. And I always go up there and
I'm nervous because I want to be good, but I'm
not of us that it's gonna be bad. And so
I go up there and I say, look, I've been
working so hard at this. Why am I not allowed
(10:14):
to be happy on stage? So I smile? Can I sing?
Speaker 2 (10:17):
We learn a lot about someone culture and the role
of your family in the film as well. How much
of your success do you put down to your upbringing
and your family support?
Speaker 4 (10:27):
One hundred I think it's the majority of it is
probably is to them, I say one hundred percent. It's
They've kept me grounded. New Zealand has kept me grounded,
but also has motivated me so much. Some more has
done the same. The culture has done the same, The
people have done the same. They've if it weren't for them,
I'm not the shaped up artist that I that I
(10:48):
am today. It's through you know, the Kiwi mentality, the
Samone mentality of resilience, perseverance, from the small place that
we're like, why can't I punch up that high? Why
can't I do That's that's unfair. I'm not you put
me ten paces behind once because I'm too fast.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
It's not.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
It's not because I'm at a disadvantage, you know. And
it's it's everything because of that of where I'm from,
the people I'm around. It's I contrude I I would
say it's it's them.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
What are the chances of there being two world famous
opera singers in run family? I mean, has it been
lovely to have Amtar along with you on this journey?
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (11:31):
One?
Speaker 4 (11:32):
And I really want to give him his flowers. Honestly,
I know in the film he has this very soft
spoken voice saying, you know, it's it's hard being the brother,
and but he truly has stepped down the shadow. And
I remember we had this conversation overseas, sitting at a cafe,
and I said, you know, stepping out, it's this is
going to be natural. People will always compare you the
(11:54):
likewise how they did this with with Pavarotti, And I said,
how you protest that is that you step out and
you become successful. Then we will no longer say, oh,
that's that's Penny's brother. We will always say, no, that's
he's a fantastic singer. And he's gone on and done that.
He's sung in every major opera house as well. And
it's you're right at the percentage. What are the odds? Well, actually,
(12:17):
I don't know. It's super super super super low. That's
what it is.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Your wife is also a successful opera singing. You're both
in demand in different places all over the world. Is
it hard to balance life and work in this career?
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Oh, you're tugging at the truth heartstrings. Yes it is.
You know last year we saw each other two months
of the year.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
Oh you know, they say, well, you know what they say,
absence makes the heart grow fonder, while my heart is
very fond.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Oh, well, I suppose at least you're both doing something
similar and understand why you're in the position you're in.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
I suppose, but that's exactly it.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
But also it means the moments, the small moments that
you have together are so amazing because you know, it's
like a all the time. You know, it's like you're
making use of it. Like in the morning, we go
have coffee, we go for a walk, we have dinner together,
we go and see the sunset. It's incredible. It's very,
very very tough. And again and third key, we with
(13:20):
Amina making her met debut next month, I mean New Zealand,
we're waving flags here. It's we're we're punching high. It's
she's yeah, it's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
You mentioned they're the comparison that was made when you
sort of became a sensation first time round, and the
Pavarotti comparison was always there. But what does set you
apart from other opera singers?
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Aha?
Speaker 4 (13:49):
I think it's the emotional content I bring to the singing,
the how I live the singing, rather than I'm trying
to show you how I'm singing. You know, I never
go up there to say, look at my technique that
I've been working on for ten years. I go up
there and if I get teary, if I get emotional,
I will sing with that emotion, even if it caused
(14:11):
a frog in the throat. I think that's what truly
makes it. Why people are so moved, It's an emotional
performance that they're seeing, and I think that comes down
to it. That's probably because of my Polynesian roots, you know,
like in someone history, when people are singing, it's singing
about the history of someone. They're singing about why we
(14:32):
came to New Zealand, or why the stingray is the
way it is. You're storytelling, so it's innately in my
blood to storytell.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Oh, it's been such a delight to talk to you,
and I'm so pleased that we started this conversation by
talking about how extremely hard it is what you do,
because you're right, you make it look really easy.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
On stage, you make it look really easy.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
So it was just nice to see behind the scenes
a little bit more, just to see the incredible amount
of work that goes into it.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
Thank you, Thank you so much. That is I'm really
appreciative of that. That means you and I need to
go on stage and sing something soon.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Honey, you don't want to, you don't want to hear
my voice.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
We'll do it.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
We'll put a poll out there, you and I we're
going to do it. Going wow, Okay, I'm locked, and.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
We're going to end this now before I commit to anything. Oh,
it has been a delight to talk to you, Penna.
Thank you so much, and best of luck for the future.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
I'm telling you no one wants that jewet well from
me anyway. That was Opera and Solomeo star Penney Patty.
His documentary tenor My Name Is Patty is in cinemas now.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudgin, listen
live to News Talks it Be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Edb from singing in churches and some are to rest
homes in South Auckland and now the grandest opera stages
around the world. The Story of the Solomeo stars brothers
Penne and Amatai Party show what can happen when you
fight adversity to follow a dream. A new documentary release
this week follows the brothers against the odds rise to opera.
(00:32):
Fane excuse me, it is called tenor my name is Party.
Penee has traveled all the way from Paris and I'm
absolutely delighted to talk to him. Penne Party, good morning.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Good morning, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
We just played the most extraordinary version, a very very
powerful version of Nessundorma. And it's from a part in
the film where you are doing a recording. You're working
in a studio with the conductor and things, and you're
doing this recording. How hard is that process? Because throughout
(01:08):
the film you do talk about, you know, when you're
not pressinger, you are an athlete, and my goodness, this
looked like it was taking everything out of you.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
I'm so I'm so glad you asked this because and
Rebecca Tansley, the director, really put the portrayed the super well,
and she showed the hard you know, all the toughness
that goes behind it that it's so The The reason
being is because not only are you running the area
so many times so by the time everyone gets it right,
(01:38):
you've done it like eighteen times by then, but the
pressures that are on you everyone's looking at you. The
chorus are looking at you, the orchestra looking at you,
the recording company are looking at you. That you don't
falter at all because once you stop, everyone else is done.
And it's so as you can, as you saw on
the film, just this amount of sweat, the amount of tears,
(01:59):
the amount of frustration to get that one good take,
it is truly much, to the point that whenever they
say can we record this, I'm always like, ah, I
don't want to go through that again, but you gotta
do what you gotta do.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
It occurred to me watching that scene that in my
life I'm trying to embrace the imperfections more right, celebrate
being imperfect. And I watched this and I thought, oh
my gosh, you actually have to be perfect, not just technically,
but you had to put every ounce of the right
emotion into every note.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
It's extraordinary, absolutely, And by the nineteenth time you recorded,
you're not longer feeling the emotion that you had in
the first take. And it's such you know, it's it
really is, it really is. You're bringing up you're bringing
up the feelings. It's it's a tough, tough one.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Oh well, I had to start by talking about that.
But look, let's go back in time a little bit.
Solomeo so loved that band. It really did kind of
come together quite organically, didn't It as a way to
fundraise for you and you know, your family and friends
and things, to be able to travel and train overseas.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Absolutely, and that was the reason why we formed the group.
And we made mention of this.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
If we make mention of this every time we sing together,
because everyone thought, oh, this is just a boy band
group that you want to to form and it's the
time of your life, you got to go. But we
always say, no, we actually formed this just so we
can study and I encourage the boys so many times
after we always catch up and I'd say, remember, you
got to go out there be a star gain those credits.
(03:45):
We'll put the stars on your lapal because you know what,
people come back to talent. They would want to come
out and see you and your individual merit. And so
the fact that we've kind of gone our ways is
not doesn't mean that Slimio has split up at all.
They're just gone to go collect their stars and then
we come back and do it all over again.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
And a shout out to your amazing sisters as well,
who in those early days helped you manage to get
those shows up the ground. I'd just like to do
the shout out to the wonderful Long sisters.
Speaker 4 (04:15):
They deserve their flowers for sure, because the amount of
things we threw at them and they just went with it.
They begredgingly, they smiled that they were happy to help them.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
It meant though that you had to make some difficult decisions.
You put the band and your family first, and that
meant that you were making quite a few sacrifices for yourself, right.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
Yes, And in my head my thinking was the sacrifice
that I make, the things that I put aside for myself,
that means I have to do it on my own.
I can go out there figure it out on my own.
Whereas the stuff. If I sacrifice the boys, that's a
three way thing. There's a lot of people involved. It's
no longer just me. So those were tough decisions. I'm
(05:00):
glad Rebecca caught this as well, because those truly, those
truly tested tested me. Honestly, it broke me several times.
But at the same time I stuck to my conviction.
I was like, I believed in it so much that
I said, this is this is the only way I
can see this happening.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
We should explain to people that those in the opera
world had a lot of opinions about this decision of yours. Right,
you had opportunities to go and and study further and
things overseas, and you had the Boys and Solomia that
you were trying to support, and they didn't really understand
why you were choosing a pop opera crossover band, did
(05:42):
they No?
Speaker 4 (05:44):
And and you know, in anything that at such a
high level, they always talk about you have to sacrifice everything.
This is you have to just go on it and
go on it alone. And yet they didn't believe it
because they thought, why why do you even care about
those guys. They don't have your voice, they don't have
your career trajectory. Why do you care? And that wasn't
(06:05):
that wasn't the point for me. It was I just
need to be I just need to give them a shot.
That's all it is. Thankfully, what happened was they all
managed to have individual careers. And I said, this would
never have happened if that didn't happen, and the you know,
and I always say, you know, in order to persuade
(06:26):
the purists that you're doing this kind of opera crossover
is to beat them at their own game. And that
was the only way. It was the toughest path, but
it was the only way.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Were you at all concerned about turning down those opportunities
and whether you would be able to sort of step
back into the opera world or were you always confident
that somehow you'd find a way.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
A bit of both. That's a great question. I often
think about this. It's a bit of both. I was scared.
I was fearful about how I would be perceived, but
at the same time I was confident that I could
do it. I know, I saw I saw something in
the future, and my poor wife would be what was
(07:10):
so mad about my optimism? She was like, why do
you why do you do this yourself? And I said,
because it's I can see it. I can see myself
standing on a stage. I don't know how, I don't
know when, but I can see myself doing it. I
believe it so much that, no matter how hard this is,
I don't know if I could see it.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
And my gosh, you do make it and you end
up performing some of the biggest opera stages in the world,
and all net footage throughout this film just gave me goosebumps.
It's just as extraordinary watching you. I don't personally know
a huge amount about opera, So when do you know
you've made it in the opera world?
Speaker 4 (07:48):
I just got that question by someone yesterday. When do
you know you've made it? I don't know if you
truly know, will ever know? And I kind of like that.
I kind of like that it's an open ended question
because then it means you're constantly searching for something better
and bigger, you know. And someone, a kid asked me
yesterday today, actually, what's how do you define greatness?
Speaker 3 (08:09):
What is it?
Speaker 4 (08:10):
How do you know you've made that stage? And I said,
you know, I don't know if I'm ever going to
be great, but I'd love to be remembered.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
That's all I want.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I think you'll be both remembered, remembered and remembered as
great pine once you've made it, though, how hard is
it to stay there? To stay at the top of
what you do?
Speaker 4 (08:30):
And has the question You're right, getting there is one part.
Staying there is harder than even getting there. It's just
you're like right now on my phone, and the team
around me are constantly trying to say, you need to sleep.
They're trying to make sure and the car rides and
the plane rides Penne you need to sleep. But I'm
(08:50):
always looking at my music on my phone because I'm
just I just want to stay ahead of the next person.
Staying there means you have to constantly put in the work,
you have to look at You don't want to give
them an excuse to look for someone else. And it's
that means every hour of the day you're committed to it.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
There's this beautiful line in the film, and I apologize
I can't remember exactly who said it, but you'd had
very little notice. You came and filled in in the
role of Romeo at the last moment, and this person said,
it's like his joy is greater than his nerves. And
I thought to myself, I want to live like that.
Is that how you live?
Speaker 3 (09:32):
That is true?
Speaker 4 (09:33):
I'm not That is absolutely right. I mean, that is
such a good explanation to it. People say, do you
get nervous? And I said, no, I just accept that.
It's that I'm human. I'm not nervous about the errors
I would probably make. It shows that I'm human, and
I think that's what makes the art form even better.
(09:53):
If you want something that's completely perfect as perfection, we've
got Ai now. And I always go up there and
I'm nervous because I want to be good, but I'm
not of us that it's gonna be bad. And so
I go up there and I say, look, I've been
working so hard at this. Why am I not allowed
(10:14):
to be happy on stage? So I smile? Can I sing?
Speaker 2 (10:17):
We learn a lot about someone culture and the role
of your family in the film as well. How much
of your success do you put down to your upbringing
and your family support?
Speaker 4 (10:27):
One hundred I think it's the majority of it is
probably is to them, I say one hundred percent. It's
They've kept me grounded. New Zealand has kept me grounded,
but also has motivated me so much. Some more has
done the same. The culture has done the same, The
people have done the same. They've if it weren't for them,
I'm not the shaped up artist that I that I
(10:48):
am today. It's through you know, the Kiwi mentality, the
Samone mentality of resilience, perseverance, from the small place that
we're like, why can't I punch up that high? Why
can't I do That's that's unfair. I'm not you put
me ten paces behind once because I'm too fast.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
It's not.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
It's not because I'm at a disadvantage, you know. And
it's it's everything because of that of where I'm from,
the people I'm around. It's I contrude I I would
say it's it's them.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
What are the chances of there being two world famous
opera singers in run family? I mean, has it been
lovely to have Amtar along with you on this journey?
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (11:31):
One?
Speaker 4 (11:32):
And I really want to give him his flowers. Honestly,
I know in the film he has this very soft
spoken voice saying, you know, it's it's hard being the brother,
and but he truly has stepped down the shadow. And
I remember we had this conversation overseas, sitting at a cafe,
and I said, you know, stepping out, it's this is
going to be natural. People will always compare you the
(11:54):
likewise how they did this with with Pavarotti, And I said,
how you protest that is that you step out and
you become successful. Then we will no longer say, oh,
that's that's Penny's brother. We will always say, no, that's
he's a fantastic singer. And he's gone on and done that.
He's sung in every major opera house as well. And
it's you're right at the percentage. What are the odds? Well, actually,
(12:17):
I don't know. It's super super super super low. That's
what it is.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Your wife is also a successful opera singing. You're both
in demand in different places all over the world. Is
it hard to balance life and work in this career?
Speaker 3 (12:32):
Oh, you're tugging at the truth heartstrings. Yes it is.
You know last year we saw each other two months
of the year.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
Oh you know, they say, well, you know what they say,
absence makes the heart grow fonder, while my heart is
very fond.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Oh, well, I suppose at least you're both doing something
similar and understand why you're in the position you're in.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
I suppose, but that's exactly it.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
But also it means the moments, the small moments that
you have together are so amazing because you know, it's
like a all the time. You know, it's like you're
making use of it. Like in the morning, we go
have coffee, we go for a walk, we have dinner together,
we go and see the sunset. It's incredible. It's very,
very very tough. And again and third key, we with
(13:20):
Amina making her met debut next month, I mean New Zealand,
we're waving flags here. It's we're we're punching high. It's
she's yeah, it's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
You mentioned they're the comparison that was made when you
sort of became a sensation first time round, and the
Pavarotti comparison was always there. But what does set you
apart from other opera singers?
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Aha?
Speaker 4 (13:49):
I think it's the emotional content I bring to the singing,
the how I live the singing, rather than I'm trying
to show you how I'm singing. You know, I never
go up there to say, look at my technique that
I've been working on for ten years. I go up
there and if I get teary, if I get emotional,
I will sing with that emotion, even if it caused
(14:11):
a frog in the throat. I think that's what truly
makes it. Why people are so moved, It's an emotional
performance that they're seeing, and I think that comes down
to it. That's probably because of my Polynesian roots, you know,
like in someone history, when people are singing, it's singing
about the history of someone. They're singing about why we
(14:32):
came to New Zealand, or why the stingray is the
way it is. You're storytelling, so it's innately in my
blood to storytell.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Oh, it's been such a delight to talk to you,
and I'm so pleased that we started this conversation by
talking about how extremely hard it is what you do,
because you're right, you make it look really easy.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
On stage, you make it look really easy.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
So it was just nice to see behind the scenes
a little bit more, just to see the incredible amount
of work that goes into it.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
Thank you, Thank you so much. That is I'm really
appreciative of that. That means you and I need to
go on stage and sing something soon.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Honey, you don't want to, you don't want to hear
my voice.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
We'll do it.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
We'll put a poll out there, you and I we're
going to do it. Going wow, Okay, I'm locked, and.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
We're going to end this now before I commit to anything. Oh,
it has been a delight to talk to you, Penna.
Thank you so much, and best of luck for the future.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
I'm telling you no one wants that jewet well from
me anyway. That was Opera and Solomeo star Penney Patty.
His documentary tenor My Name Is Patty is in cinemas now.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudgin, listen
live to News Talks it Be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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