Internationally acclaimed Tongan tenor Filipe Manu, who has returned to Aotearoa for a major New Zealand Opera production, has previously revealed another ambition close to his cultural roots — to see the creation of the world’s first opera performed entirely in Tongan.
Manu is back in New Zealand to play Nadir in NZ Opera’s new staging of Georges Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers, which opens in Auckland on September 23 before moving to Christchurch in October.
His return has also taken him back to Dilworth School, where his journey into classical singing began.
Manu recently donated his performance at a Dilworth fundraising concert supporting the school’s International Music Fund, aimed at creating international opportunities for its young singers. He told PMN that giving back was a way of helping another generation receive opportunities similar to those that launched his own career.
Long before this latest return, however, Manu had spoken publicly about another aspiration for the future.
In an interview published in the Winter 2026 issue of AA Directions, Manu was asked about his dream for the world of opera.
“If I were able to see the creation and performance of the world’s first opera entirely in Tongan, that would be pretty special,” he said.
The ambition reflects Manu’s strong attachment to lea faka-Tonga. In the same interview, he recalled arriving at primary school in Auckland unable to speak or understand English because Tongan was the language spoken at home.
He said a teacher once suggested his mother stop speaking Tongan to him so he could learn English more quickly, but the idea was quickly abandoned. Manu later reflected that otherwise he could have lost an important connection with his language, culture, mother tongue and relationship with his mother.
His path towards international opera began at Dilworth, where he discovered singing and later became head chorister of the founding Fortissimo choir around 2010.
Manu has credited the school with providing the opportunities that allowed his love of singing to develop, before he went on to study music at the University of Waikato and later at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He subsequently became the first person of Tongan heritage accepted into the Royal Opera House’s prestigious Young Artist Programme at Covent Garden.
His international career has since taken him to leading opera houses including the Vienna State Opera and Paris Opera.
Now his career has brought him back to the country where it began.
NZ Opera’s The Pearl Fishers will feature Manu as Nadir alongside Madison Nonoa as Léïla, Samuel Dundas as Zurga and Anthony Robin Schneider as Nourabad. Auckland performances will be held on September 23, 25 and 27 at the Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre.
The production is particularly significant because it marks NZ Opera’s first presentation of The Pearl Fishers since 2002 and brings its principal internationally based New Zealand singers home for the new staging.
For Manu, the return connects several stages of his journey — from the Auckland school where he first discovered his operatic voice, to an international career, and an earlier dream that one day the language he grew up speaking might itself be heard throughout an entire opera.
