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Faamanu Fonoti-Fuimaono
Voice Type
Baritone
Home Town
Flaxmere, Hastings
Nu'u
Malie/Samatau/Salani (Samoa)
How did you become interested in opera singing?
I first became interested in Opera when I was about 15 years old, i would always hear my older brothers playing opera on their phones, or the TV after they had just joined Project Prima Volta - a youth initiative that empowers young people through Opera. They told me all about how cool it was to be in a professional, fully-staged opera in Festival Opera’s production of Le nozze di Figaro, and so I decided I would follow in their footsteps and give it a go.
After joining Project Prima Volta myself, I performed in my first Opera, La Boheme and have been in love with singing, performing and watching opera ever since.
Performance highlights so far?
Festival Opera productions: La Boheme (2016), Carmen (2017), Madame Butterfly (2018), La Traviata (2019), Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci (2020), The Cunning Little Vixen (2022).
NZO Opera in School’s Tour of Respighi’s The Sleeping Beauty and NZO’s Rigoletto.
Photo © Richard Wood
What are you looking forward to about being part of TANZOS?
I’m looking forward to being immersed in a constant, high-level teaching and learning environment. I’m also looking forward to trying to maintain the high level of quality that the alumni of TANZOS has been able to maintain in its first two years of running.
The intensity of the daily TANZOS schedule is really beneficial for a young singer trying to improve.
What are your career hopes following TANZOS?
I am hopeful that I will have improved enough throughout my time at TANZOS to impress an audition panel somewhere in Europe - enough to get me a full scholarship at a school in either Europe or the UK, or enough to impress an audition
panel at one of the Opera houses in Europe.
Faamanu is supported by a Te Pae Kōkako Scholarship
Biography
Faamanu is a proud Samoan–Kiwi baritone from Flaxmere, Hastings. He is currently completing his Master’s in Advanced Opera Studies under the tutelage of Nikki‑Li Hartliep as a member of Te Pae Kōkako - The Aotearoa New Zealand Opera Studio (TANZOS) programme at the University of Waikato, Supported by a Te Pae Kokako Opera Grant.
Faamanu began his singing journey in church, where he was an active member of the youth group and choir. Inspired by his older brothers, he auditioned for the youth programme Project Prima Volta (PPV) and has since worked both onstage and backstage with Festival Opera through PPV. Faamanu has been selected to attend the New Zealand Opera School every year from 2022 to 2026.
Faamanu has performed in many major operatic productions, including New Zealand Opera’s production of Rigoletto(2024), and Festival Opera’s productions of La Traviata (2019), Carmen(2018), Madama Butterfly (2017), and La Bohème (2016). He appeared as Aeneas in Project Prima Volta’s production of Dido and Aeneas(2016), sang the role of Harasta in The Cunning Little Vixen (2022), and performed as Simone in the University of Waikato’s production of Gianni Schicchi by Giacomo Puccini. He was also part of the ensemble for New Zealand Opera’s production of Orfeo ed Euridice by Gluck.
In 2023, Faamanu toured with New Zealand Opera’s Opera in Schools programme, performing The Sleeping Beauty by Respighi. He returned again in 2025 to tour The Elixir of Loveby Gaetano Donizetti, performing to more than 10,000 students across the country. In 2025, Faamanu was a finalist in the North Shore Berecroft Aria Competition and the New Zealand Aria Competition.
Faamanu is looking forward to many exciting engagements in 2026, including his debut with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra performing Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen by Gustav Mahler. In September, he will move to London to further his studies at the prestigious Royal College of Music, after being offered a place accompanied by a full-tuition scholarship.