Joel Amosa in training for his upcoming role in Verdi's Rigoletto. Photo / Dean Purcell
Opera singer Joel Amosa, who’s performing with NZ Opera in a production of Rigoletto this month, on his secret superpower - and why he does it all for his kids.
Joel Amosa can bench-press his body weight. Not bad for a classically trained opera singer who’s 122kg and has a day job that rarely sees him break out in a sweat.
If life had taken a slightly different turn, he might have been a contender, giving Kiwi weightlifter David Liti a run for his place at the Paris Olympics. He does cut a fine figure in a tuxedo, though.
“I’ve actually found that on the days when I’ve done heavy lifts, I sing my best,” says Amosa, who’s performing with New Zealand Opera in Verdi’s Rigoletto this month. “Everything is just solid as a rock and I feel really anchored. I can sing all day long.”
Between opera gigs, the bass-baritone from South Auckland manages ASB Bank’s nationwide community engagement team, running projects that range from teaching financial literacy in schools to raising awareness among the elderly about scams and fraud.
A classic overachiever, the 34-year-old father of two also moonlights as a weightlifting and CrossFit coach, and is committed to pushing his own physical limits. After coming late to the sport, he’s still a long way off the elite level but is building towards a clean and jerk lift in the 180-200kg range (Liti’s national record in the super-heavyweight division is 236kg).
While the grunt work of pumping iron might seem a world away from his Rigoletto role as a scheming courtier in 16th-century Italy, Amosa reckons the two disciplines are a natural fit.
“I think my passion for weightlifting mirrors my passion for music, in a weird way,” he says. “It’s an individual sport, like solo singing. You’re vulnerable up there by yourself on a platform on the stage. And they’re both very technically driven, requiring years and years of dedication to perform at your peak.”
Dedication is right. Six days a week, Amosa slips out of the family’s house in Manurewa long before the sun comes up for a 4am start at the gym.
After a two-hour session that includes weight training and running a boot camp, he’s back home in time to make breakfast for his two little girls, Luna and Emelina, and deliver his wife, Maia, a cup of coffee in bed.
“I’m addicted to over-committing myself,” he says, with a laugh. “I do the morning shift but by the end of the day, I’m pretty patted out.”
Amosa grew up in Manurewa, steeped in his family’s Samoan culture and Christian faith. Both the New Zealand and Samoan flags are on display in the garage, which doubles as a home gym. In October, he’s singing in a new Samoan opera by composer Poulina Salima at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Apia.
His first taste of the limelight came as a 3-year-old when he gave a solo performance at a White Sunday children’s church service, singing a hymn his grandparents had taught him.
In 2018, he won the prestigious Lexus SongQuest – one of the most significant moments in his career after training at Otago University at a time when the student body in classical music was short on cultural diversity.
“It definitely validated that I had a shot in this world,” he says. “I’m a loud and proud Samoan, and Pasifika opera singers are just smashing it now.”
He and Maia were in the same voice class at university and sang opposite each other as leads in a production of The Marriage of Figaro. These days, Samoan nursery rhymes are the soundtrack to their home life. Luna, who’s 4, and 21-month-old Emelina are learning the language through song, as their father did.
Maia’s parents are from Finland and the couple were raised with very different parenting styles.
“Mine was very disciplined; the parents always have the last say,” he explains. “Maia’s approach is, ‘Let’s talk to our children and figure out what’s actually upsetting them’. Gentle parenting, which is foreign to me. But we work it out together pretty well.”
Wanting to be actively involved in his children’s lives is what first inspired Amosa to get fit and drop some excess kilos. “I needed to get in shape because I want to be a good dad. So it’s a lifestyle thing forever.”
He joined a gym and began posting videos of his home workouts on social media. Outgrowing the garage, he was running free boot camps in the carpark of a local shopping mall when Auckland went into its second Covid lockdown. Looking to find a way to stay fit, he began watching weightlifting clips on YouTube and was hooked.
Whether it’s the maturity of age or life experience, Amosa has grown into his voice since becoming a husband and father, extending his vocal range into a higher register. He’s excited about performing in Rigoletto, his first Verdian opera and a step-change from the comic “opera buffa” he’s mostly performed in until now.
A lush Opera Australia production, this version is set in a Mafia-style 1950s Italy with Sol3 Mio’s Kiwi-Samoan tenor Amitai Pati as the womanising Duke of Mantua and Australian baritone James Clayton as his court jester, Rigoletto. Amosa plays the courtier Marullo.
When it comes to the great dramatic operas, he says, you’re either a Verdi fan or a Wagner fan. Amosa, who sang a Verdi aria as part of his repertoire in the Lexus final, says both composers created epic, technically difficult work on a grand scale, but his heart is with the Italian.
“It’s such beautiful, powerful music that really hits deep. It’s going to be magic.”
Rigoletto, sung in Italian and supported by the Auckland Philharmonia, will be performed at the Aotea Centre on September 19, 21 and 25.
Joanna Wane is an award-winning feature writer on the NZ Herald’s Lifestyle Premium team, with a special focus on social issues and the arts.
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