The movie Tenor: My Name Is Pati is an uplifting story about Kiwi tenor Pene Pati and what’s important in life.
Movie TENOR
Pene Pati grew up in a musical family, think the Jackson Five but from Samoa. Singing from the age of three, Pene and his family moved to New Zealand where the family creed, the way to power is through service, saw them branch out from singing in church to visiting retirement homes every day after school. As is the custom in Samoa, family was everything even through homelife wasn’t always pleasant under a strict father. There’s a fine line between discipline and what we now know to be domestic violence.
At school Pene played rugby as you do when you’re a large Samoan. However, at this school if you played rugby you had to be in the school choir.
Pene soon dreamt of being an opera singer but worried that his size doesn’t lend itself to leading man statues. There was one another much larger hurdle. Opera singing didn’t fit into Samoan culture. There were persistent concerns amongst the community that he would embarrass his family and even worse his culture. Undeterred Pene presses on.
The need to raise money for tuition saw Pene and his brothers form a group called Sol3 Mio. Dubbed popera they went on to have the highest selling album in New Zealand, going 10 times platinum and outselling Lorde.
Pene finally made his way into the world of opera and as more and more people heard his unique gift, he became known as the new Pavarotti. Worldwide acclaim grew as he performed the lead in key operas in prestigious theatres across the world. Paris, London the world was his. He was even offered the operatic position of a lifetime. But there’s a problem.
Family comes first, always. Family are the people who “make you remember who you are”.
His brother Amitai was also embarking on a career in opera and needed money for tuition. Should Pene take up a one-time-only operatic dream position being offered to him, or use Sol3 Mio to help his brother? The choice is a no brainer for Pene. I won’t spoil the story for you.
As the music reached its highest notes, I pondered:
- The movie is a fascinating look at Samoan culture and whether that has a place in the world of opera;
- It also looks at the interaction between talent versus drive;
- But most of all it is about family;
- The performances had me in tears and I’m not an opera buff;
- What an amazingly talented family and what a timely lesson in what’s important in life.
For more information go to Luna Cinema. The movie starts on July 23.
