Opera singer Phillip Rhode's dad plans haka of joy at Covent Garden

Dame Kiri helping set Phillip Rhodes on the operatic journey. Photo / Supplied.

The last time Henare O'Keefe spoke to his adopted son Phillip Rhodes a couple of months back the tears welled in his eyes.

It was just after Dame Kiri Te Kanawa had announced Rhodes, now an internationally acclaimed opera singer, would be making his Covent Garden debut in London next July.

O'Keefe called his lad after hearing the news.

"I said hey, what's all this about Covent Garden?"

Rhodes replied that he had been under strict instructions not to say anything until after Dame Kiri had made the formal and official announcement.

"Then I thought oh man... I have to admit I had a little cry because he will be standing up there on the stage where all the greats have stood.

"Pavarotti, Domingo, Mario Lanza, Dame Kiri...and I said 'you deserve to be there'."

To which his equally emotional boy simply replied: "You and mum have to come over — you have to be there too."

While the costs will be slightly daunting, O'Keefe said nothing would give them more pleasure than to be in that audience to see the lad they raised from the age of 9 performing at one of the world's premier opera venues.

"We will have to be there... and I'm picturing it already... after the applause dies down his old man will stand up and do the haka," O'Keefe said with a smile.

And he most likely will, given the amount of pride he and his family have for the now 37-year-old singer.

Rhodes had come from a trouble background and O'Keefe simply said "this wasn't supposed to happen".

But their support and devotion to his upbringing, and his own determination to make something of his life, changed everything.

"We gave him the love and the care but he had to work hard... he had to pull his finger out."

O'Keefe said their boy worked hard and said those who believed it was all simply a life of glamour were very much mistaken.

"When he is here at home he practices three hours in the morning and three hours in the evening every day.

"We hear this magnificent voice ringing through the house."

The pronunciation had to be absolutely perfect and the feeling and the tones and pitches also had to be perfect.

"Otherwise he'd get booed," was how O'Keefe put it.

Music is now Rhodes' life.

After he won the Lexus Song Quest in 2007 Dame Kiri spoke with O'Keefe and his question was straight to the point — "has he got what it takes?"

Dame Kiri was equally straight to the point and simply replied with three names — those of Inia Te Wiata, herself "and now Phillip Rhodes".

But despite the acclaim he draws Rhodes remains the lad from Hastings who can sing.

"He has kept the humility and the compassion," O'Keefe said.

"They are still there because he is a good man, and when he comes home he always heads down to the marae to do some work... he'll clean the toilets."

Rhodes has been enjoying a short holiday with his family in London and was now "on the road" for a couple of weeks, O'Keefe said, adding that he may be calling back home for a summer break.

He has been negotiating with New Zealand Opera and that may bring him back this way early next year.

And that next visit home may have a very special touch as O'Keefe is looking to do some fundraising.

"Get opera into Flaxmere."

And get the young people looking and listening.

"I have said to him 'you give others hope'," O'Keefe said.

His boy broke the mould and others could so easily do the same, as music could be such a positive and inspirational part of life.