Tenor Manase Latu has won the Marianne Mathy Scholarship, ‘The Mathy’, at the IFAC Handa Australian Singing Competition. The 23-year-old New Zealand tenor won the competition’s major prize, which includes a $30,000 purse, at the finals concert held at The Concourse, Chatswood, bringing a ringing sound and well-shaped phrasing to performances of Ferrando’s aria Tradito, Schernito from Mozart’s Così fan tutte, and Ecco ridente in cielo, from Rossini’s The Barber of Seville.

Manase LatuManase Latu. Photo © Tom Truong

Whittled down from 81 at the beginning of the competition, five finalists competed for The Mathy, and other prizes, in a finals concert with the Opera Australia Orchestra, conducted by Dr Nicholas Milton.

“I’m very humbled and I feel incredibly blessed to have been given this award in the midst of such amazing talent tonight,” Latu said on accepting the award, before going on to thank, among others, the competition’s National Adjudicator Noëmi Nadelmann for the experience. “It’s been priceless for every single one of us.”

“A shout out to my teacher, Te Oti Rakena, thank you so much,” he said. “We got there in the end, ay.”

Latu’s prize includes an opportunity to audition for the...