Inia Te Wiata
Encyclopedia
Inia Watene Tauhia Te Wiata (10 June 191526 June 1971) was a New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 Māori bass-baritone opera singer, film actor and carver.

Early life

Inia Te Wiata was born in Otaki
Otaki, New Zealand
Otaki is a town in the Kapiti Coast District of the North Island of New Zealand, situated half way between the capital city Wellington, 70 kilometres to the southwest, and Palmerston North, 70 kilometres to the northeast. It marks the northernmost point of the Wellington Region. The town's...

, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

, into the Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga Iwi
Ngati Raukawa
Ngāti Raukawa is a Māori iwi with traditional bases in the Waikato, Taupo and Manawatū/Horowhenua regions of New Zealand. In 2006, 29,418 Māori registered their affiliation with Ngāti Raukawa.- Early History :...

. His father, Watene Te Wiata, died early and his mother Constance Helena Johnson remarried soon afterwards so Inia was brought up by Pairoroku and Rakate Rikihana. He developed an interest in singing and first performed on stage at the age of 7. He attended the Otaki state school and was taught music by Miss Edith Miller. After primary school he attended Otaki Māori College. At the age of 13 his voice broke and settled into a bass-baritone. Afterwards he joined his cousin's quartet, which included Wi Nicholls, Henry Tahiwi and Dan Rikihana. Other family members encouraged Te Wiata in his singing - particularly Mrs Mihi Taylor, a member of the Rikihana family. She taught both Te Wiata and his cousin to sing duets.

Te Wiata moved to Waikato and it was here he became interested in carving. He was employed at Ngaruawahia
Ngaruawahia
Ngāruawāhia is a town in the Waikato region of the North Island of New Zealand. It is located 20 km north-west of Hamilton at the confluence of the Waikato and Waipa Rivers...

 for three years assisting with the carving of Turongo, the house of the Māori King
Maori King Movement
The Māori King Movement or Kīngitanga is a movement that arose among some of the Māori tribes of New Zealand in the central North Island ,in the 1850s, to establish a role similar in status to that of the monarch of the colonising people, the British, as a way of halting the alienation of Māori land...

, which opened in 1936. During his time in Ngaruawahia he married Rose Evelyn Friar known as Ivy, they had 6 children Iwikau, Kirikowhai, Hinemoana, Gloria, Budgie (who died as a toddler) and Inia jnr. He also did seasonal labouring work at the Horotiu Freezing works, near Hamilton
Hamilton, New Zealand
Hamilton is the centre of New Zealand's fourth largest urban area, and Hamilton City is the country's fourth largest territorial authority. Hamilton is in the Waikato Region of the North Island, approximately south of Auckland...

. He continued his public singing during this time and was a very active member of the Waiata Māori Choir. This choir was organised by the Superintendent of the Methodist Māori Mission, Reverend J. J. Seamer, and it toured all over New Zealand. Te Wiata's work on Turongo prevented him from joining the Choir when they toured Great Britain.

Te Wiata began to develop a circle of supporters who wished to help him further his singing education. Mr Grant of Hamilton, Mr H. D. Caro - the then Mayor of Hamilton, Dame Hilda Ross
Hilda Ross
Dame Hilda Ross, DBE was a New Zealand politician and activist.-Early years:...

, Sir Joseph Hannan
Joseph Hannan
Joseph Francis Hannan was an Australian politician and trade unionist. Hannan was probably born in Yorkshire, England and emigrated with his family in 1888. He soon became involved in the union movement and was a member of the committee of the Melbourne Trades Hall Council that established the...

, Stewart Garland and the conductor Anderson Tyrer
Anderson Tyrer
Anderson Tyrer was an English concert pianist, active during the 1920s.Tyrer studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music, where he won a scholarship of four years from the County Council. He served in the Army in 1914 to 1918.He made his debut at a Promenade concert under Thomas Beecham in...

 were all impressed by his talent. A favourable professional opinion of Te Wiata's voice was acquired from Australian singer Peter Dawson, and Anderson Tyrer was put in charge of arranging Te Wiata's study overseas. Fundraising began and a government grant was added to this and, in 1947 Te Wiata left for London for three years study at the Trinity College of Music
Trinity College of Music
Trinity College of Music is one of the London music conservatories, based in Greenwich. It is part of Trinity Laban.The conservatoire is inheritor of elegant riverside buildings of the former Greenwich Hospital, designed in part by Sir Christopher Wren...

.

Formal musical training and career

Te Wiata worked hard at his craft. In addition to his studies at Trinity College he also took private lessons from James Kennedy Scott and language lessons at the Berlitz School of Languages. In order to gain more experience with opera he joined the opera company run by the great English Soprano Joan Cross
Joan Cross
Joan Cross was an English soprano, closely associated with the operas of Benjamin Britten. She also sang in the Italian and German operatic repertoires. She later became a musical administrator, taking on the direction of the Sadler's Wells Opera Company.-Career:Cross was born in London...

 and had a resounding success with his portrayal of Sarastro from Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

's The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....

. As the end of the three year study grant was approaching, the Prime Minister of New Zealand
Prime Minister of New Zealand
The Prime Minister of New Zealand is New Zealand's head of government consequent on being the leader of the party or coalition with majority support in the Parliament of New Zealand...

, Peter Fraser, visited England and Te Wiata took the opportunity to apply for a grant for a fourth year. This was successful.

Nearing the end of his grant, Te Wiata decided to audition for the Covent Garden Opera Company
Royal Opera, London
The Royal Opera is an opera company based in central London, resident at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Along with the English National Opera, it is one of the two principal opera companies in London. Founded in 1946 as the Covent Garden Opera Company, it was known by that title until 1968...

. He was successful in his audition and was told to turn up for rehearsal the next day. He was launched into his first role in the Opera Company as the Speaker in The Magic Flute. He went from strength to strength, taking parts in operas The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...

, La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...

, Billy Budd
Billy Budd
Billy Budd is a short novel by Herman Melville.Billy Budd can also refer to:*Billy Budd , a 1962 film produced, directed, and co-written by Peter Ustinov, based on Melville's novel...

and Gloriana
Gloriana
Gloriana is an opera in three acts by Benjamin Britten to an English libretto by William Plomer, based on Elizabeth and Essex by Lytton Strachey...

- the parts for the last two being specially written for him by Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...

.

As his reputation grew, Te Wiata was also approached to perform in television and film productions. He appeared in a number of films including Man of the Moment
Man of the Moment (1955 film)
Man of the Moment is a 1955 comedy film starring Norman Wisdom, Belinda Lee, Lana Morris and Jerry Desmonde.-Cast:* Norman Wisdom as Norman* Lana Morris as Penny* Belinda Lee as Sonia* Jerry Desmonde as Jackson* Karel Stepanek as Lom...

 (1955) and In Search of the Castaways
In Search of the Castaways (film)
In Search of the Castaways is a 1962 Walt Disney Productions feature film starring Hayley Mills and Maurice Chevalier in a tale about a worldwide search for a shipwrecked sea captain. The film was directed by Robert Stevenson from a screenplay by Lowell S. Hawley based upon Jules Verne's 1868...

 (1962); and also took the lead in the film The Seekers
The Seekers (1954 film)
The Seekers is a 1954 British adventure film produced by the Rank Organisation and directed by Ken Annakin. It starred Jack Hawkins, Glynis Johns, Noel Purcell, and Kenneth Williams....

 (1954). He took part in a number of television series. He did not restrict himself to singing in pure opera but also starred in musicals including The Most Happy Fella
The Most Happy Fella
The Most Happy Fella is a 1956 musical with a book, music, and lyrics by Frank Loesser. The story, about a romance between an older man and younger woman, is based on the play They Knew What They Wanted by Sidney Howard...

.

In 1959 he married Beryl McMillan, also a singer and actor, and they had one daughter Rima Te Wiata born in 1965. Beryl gave up acting after her marriage to concentrate on managing Te Wiata's career.

While Te Wiata returned to New Zealand periodically, he did not settle there but continued with his singing career in the United Kingdom, living in London and creating a life there with his wife and child. Te Wiata was a popular man and had a large circle of friends and acquaintances including the comedian Spike Milligan
Spike Milligan
Terence Alan Patrick Seán "Spike" Milligan Hon. KBE was a comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor. His early life was spent in India, where he was born, but the majority of his working life was spent in the United Kingdom. He became an Irish citizen in 1962 after the...

. Te Wiata remained extremely fond of New Zealand and talked of returning there on his retirement. He maintained close links with New Zealand House in London, attending and singing at the opening of the House in 1963 and also working in the basement of New Zealand House on carving projects. He carved a fine waka huia
Waka huia
Waka huia and Papa hou are treasure containers made by Māori - the indigenous people of New Zealand. These treasure containers stored a person's most prized personal possessions, such as hei-tiki , feathers for decorating and dressing the hair such as the tail feathers of the huia , heru and other...

 for Sir Thomas Macdonald, New Zealand's High Commissioner to present to the Worshipful Company of Butchers on Macdonald's departure from London. Te Wiata also had a long-term project carving five very large totara logs. He continued working on this project in between his professional obligations but was unable to complete the work Pouihi before his death from cancer in 1971.

Te Wiata's funeral was held at Otaki Pa, New Zealand and the event was photographed by the New Zealand photographer, Ans Westra
Ans Westra
Ans Westra, CNZM is a self-taught New Zealand photographer, with an interest in Māori, whose prominence as an artist and author was most amplified by her 1964 piece Washday at the pa....

.

Te Wiata's archive of papers is held by the National Library of New Zealand
National Library of New Zealand
The National Library of New Zealand is New Zealand's legal deposit library charged with the obligation to "enrich the cultural and economic life of New Zealand and its interchanges with other nations"...

.

In November 2007, a commemorative CD / DVD was published containing previously unreleased recordings as well as a documentary film of his carving and an interview of Spike Milligan.

Selected filmography

  • The Seekers
    The Seekers (1954 film)
    The Seekers is a 1954 British adventure film produced by the Rank Organisation and directed by Ken Annakin. It starred Jack Hawkins, Glynis Johns, Noel Purcell, and Kenneth Williams....

     (1954
  • Man of the Moment
    Man of the Moment (1955 film)
    Man of the Moment is a 1955 comedy film starring Norman Wisdom, Belinda Lee, Lana Morris and Jerry Desmonde.-Cast:* Norman Wisdom as Norman* Lana Morris as Penny* Belinda Lee as Sonia* Jerry Desmonde as Jackson* Karel Stepanek as Lom...

     (1955)
  • Sands of the Desert
    Sands of the Desert
    Sands of the Desert is a 1960 British comedy film directed by John Paddy Carstairs and starring Charlie Drake, Peter Arne, Sarah Branch and Raymond Huntley...

    (1960)
  • In Search of the Castaways
    In Search of the Castaways (film)
    In Search of the Castaways is a 1962 Walt Disney Productions feature film starring Hayley Mills and Maurice Chevalier in a tale about a worldwide search for a shipwrecked sea captain. The film was directed by Robert Stevenson from a screenplay by Lowell S. Hawley based upon Jules Verne's 1868...

     (1962)

External links

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