Sweet song of success | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay

The day after the Song Quest, Kiri Te Kanawa rang up and said 'you have to come to Melbourne and audition for [top tenor] Dennis O'Neill'.

Phillip Rhodes, rising baritoneRISING star of the operatic world, baritone and Hawke's Bay ex-pat Phillip Rhodes, is the latest to have the inspiring story of his tumultuous life screen on Maori TV.

Showing tonight at 8.30, Rhodes Actor Singer explores how the 31-year-old overcame a childhood of violence and abuse to develop a successful international singing career.

Mr Rhodes recently returned from Wales, where he has been based for the past three and a half years, to shoot the documentary.

"It was something that was planned when things started to go quite well for me in Cardiff," he said. "They thought maybe my story could be told in order to lift public knowledge and remind New Zealand that it is extremely hard work to break through but if you keep your head down and do it, it's definitely worth it."

The documentary reveals the abusive childhood of Mr Rhodes at the hands of an alcohol and drug-addicted father, and the love and support provided for him and his five sisters after they were adopted by Flaxmere community leaders Henare and Pam O'Keefe.

Mr Rhodes credits that foundation as what allowed him to take control of his past and flourish into an artist.

"He was busy being a warrior, fighting and scrapping for survival," said Mr O'Keefe. "When that was sorted for him, this beautiful shining jewel that had been sitting in there started to come forth."

Set at iconic places in his life, the documentary flicks along the Bay landscape and features family sing-a-longs in the O'Keefes' living room; the grounds of Havelock North High School where his inner-performer emerged under teacher Ken Keyes and he won the Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival actor of the year; and the Hastings bar Breakers, where he was known as "the singing barman" and was discovered by high-profile international tenor Patrick Power.

From the discovery, Mr Rhodes went on to study Mr Power's course at EIT in Taradale, and among other achievements, was named Dame Malvina Major emerging artist of the year in 2004 and won the distinguished Lexus Song Quest in 2007.

"The day after the Song Quest Kiri Te Kanawa rang up and said 'you have to come to Melbourne and audition for [top tenor] Dennis O'Neill'," Mr Rhodes recalled.

A fundraising concert at the Hawke's Bay Opera House that helped him attend his place at the Cardiff International Academy of Voice he won from that audition, was one his most memorable.

"My last performance here was one of my favourites, I will never forget the generosity of people that turned out to support me, I would never have got anywhere if it hadn't been for them," he said.

Since based overseas, where Mr Rhodes plans to be for the next several decades, he said he has been immersed in the culture of opera that, he said, draws parallels with his Maori roots.

"Just being in the thick of it, and being closer to the birthplace of opera in Italy," he said. "I lived there for three months and was completely immersed in the way of life and gained an immense appreciation for their art form, for opera.

"I was really able to get under the skin of performing there and realising that like our Maori culture what we have here is the same as what they have there for their art form, that appreciation for heritage and wanting to savour it."

Mr Rhodes said filming tonight's doco was the perfect opportunity to trip home and introduce his 7-month-old daughter, Bayley, and partner Jemma, to his family.

"I wanted to bring her home to meet her grandparents, and to show I'll never forget my roots, especially from my family and what my parents give me with love and security, and how they told me I could try my hand at anything. They gave me the encouragement and security to pursue what I wanted."

While here, he also worked with the NZ Opera as artist-in-residence and will squeeze in "a few tours with Kiri" in the next six months.