Being disconnected from his whakapapa hits bad note for New Zealand opera star

Phillip Rhodes as Enrico and Marlena Devoe as Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor. Photo / Supplied

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Māori operatic baritone Philip Rhodes is disconnected from his whakapapa and one day hopes his dad's whānau can fill that gaping void.

The internationally acclaimed opera star is in Aotearoa to play the lead in the New Zealand Opera production of Verdi's Macbeth – the first main-scale production to go ahead since the beginning of the Covid pandemic.

Macbeth, which opens tomorrow, will be staged in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in September and October.

A protege of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Rhodes' success is partly due to New Zealand's long-reigning opera queen's teachings and her faith in the rising star.

Based in Wales and back in Aotearoa, Rhodes told the Herald, though he was fortunate to "finally" be adopted by wonderful people, Pam and Henare Ngaera O'Keefe, he yearns to know more.

"There is a big disconnect with my Māori side. I have no connection with my dad's whānau," Rhodes told the Herald.

"I have been to my dad's marae and visited my grandmother at the urupa but there is a longing to be connected."

Rhodes said was told his dad - "totally disconnected" from his whānau when his mum died. He went off the rails."

Phillip Rhodes (right) and his foster mum Pam O'Keefe. Photo / NZME

Rhodes and a sister went to their dad's marae. A whānau member pointed to a door and when they opened the door, an aunty took one look at his sister and started crying.

"We got some information, but what we gathered is there was something there but they did not want to revisit, so we left it there."

Now a father of two, Rhodes would like to tell his children exactly what their Māori whakapapa is.