What a night! NZ’s Signature Choir of 94 singers, 82 members of the SSO and an audience of enthusiastic local Pacific Islanders! The Concert Hall was packed out. The Choir presented songs from the Cook Islands, Fiji, Niue, Samoa, Tokelau and Tonga. The Concert’s title, MANO MOANA, means ‘honouring our Pacific roots through song and storytelling’.
This Concert certainly told a story of how Islanders living here feel deeply about their culture. People sang in the aisles, waved flags from the balconies and created a light show across the space with their phone torches. People in one balcony waved their torches, then the balcony on the other side waved theirs. Then dozens more joined from the stalls flashing lights. For the many children in the audience it was a night of excitement they’ll not forget. For the hundreds of Islanders who had never been to the Opera House before, it was a marvellous introduction to the space.
The Signature Choir is one of New Zealand’s leading vocal groups, bringing together gospel, classical, modern and traditional ‘Pasifika’ music. The Choir was founded by Fepulea’l Helen Tupai to explore the ocean as a symbol of connection, heritage and strength. As the Master of Ceremony Tofiga Fepulea’l explained, “The ocean is love’s favourite messenger”. Many of the songs told of love, sailing, God and respecting all peoples. They sang for two hours, all from memory, all with precision and total joy.
Congratulations to the SSO for this Mana Moana collaboration. The orchestra got in the mood with the women instrumentalists wearing flowers behind their ears and the percussion section enthusiastically clanging the cymbals and pounding the big drums. Yet, the harp could be occasionally heard midst all the musical excitement. Congratulations to conductor Carlo Antonioli who held all the disparate parts together seamlessly.
The arrangers were Fepulea’l Helen Tupia, Jadrah Tupai and Thomas Goss. The orchestral elements blended beautifully with the singing. The Choir and Orchestra were as one.
Mana Moana is based on faith in God, pride in culture and the resilience of the Pacific peoples. Nothing like this has ever happened in the Concert Hall before. Give us more of these uplifting, cross-cultural events!
The concert took place on the June 20th and 21st June 2025.
