Taking its title, Nessun Dorma, from the greatest tenor hit of them all, Pene Pati’s second album balances favourite numbers with operatic rarities – one of them in world premiere recording. In addition to Puccini, the Italian composers are Verdi, Donizetti, Mascagni and Mercadante, while the French school is represented by Berlioz, Meyerbeer, Gounod, Massenet, Halévy and Guiraud.  Joining the Samoan tenor on the album are his soprano wife, Amina Edris, his tenor brother Amitai Pati, conductor Emmanuel Villaume, the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine and the Choeur de l’Opéra National de Bordeaux.

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“It’s always a delicate process to put together an album that tells your story as an artist, and captures your growth as a musician and your trajectory  as a singer,” writes Pene Pati. “Nessun Dorma showcases my love of the art of storytelling and the emotions it can elicit … As you listen to this album, I hope it takes you on an emotional journey.”

Naming Pati’s debut recital Disc of the Month for May 2022, Opera magazine enthused over his “distinctively clear, marvellously sunny timbre, innate musicality and exceptionally vivid textual projection”. Awarding the album five stars, BBC Music Magazine praised the tenor’s characteristic “generosity of spirit” and affirmed that his voice “has the colour for both the French and Italian repertoire”.

In Spring 2024, on a visit to Birmingham in the UK, Pati sang Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust (represented on Nessun Dorma with the aria ‘Nature immense’). The Telegraph wrote: “He showed an extraordinary gift for producing a golden thread of sound that can swell without strain to magnificence, and his lyrical line was perfectly rounded in a way that reminded me of great French tenors of old.”  The other French items on the album are taken from Gounod’s version of the Faust story (‘Salut, demeure chaste et pure’, in a world premiere recording featuring an urgent cabalette to follow the lyrical aria), from Massenet’s Manon (‘Ah! fuyez, douce image’) and Werther (‘Pourquoi me réveiller’), and, entering less familiar territory, from Meyerbeer’s Dom Sébastien and from Halévy’s La Juive (a trio for two tenors and soprano) and Guiraud’s Frédégonde (an aria). The editions of both rarities were prepared by Palazzetto Bru-Zane, which promotes the rediscovery of French music from the period 1780-1920. La Juive is a work that has retained some currency on the world’s stages, but, after its first run of performances in 1895, Frédégonde remained unperformed for over 120 years. The composer of several operas, Ernest Guiraud remains best known for replacing Carmen’s original dialogue with recitative; Frédégonde, an epic five-act drame lyrique, was completed after his death by Saint-Saëns and Dukas.

The rarity among the items by Italian composers is a two-tenor duet from Il bravo by Saverio Mercadante, first seen at La Scala, Milan in 1839. Amitai Pati also joins Pene for the duet, with chorus, which is sung by Macduff and Malcolm in Act IV of Verdi’s Macbeth. There is more from Macbeth with Macduff’s heartbreaking aria ‘Ah, la paterna mano’, while Pene’s prowess in the bel canto repertoire is displayed with extracts from Donizetti’s La Favorite (which sets a French libretto) and Lucia di Lammermoor. Complementing the indomitable ‘Nessun dorma’ is a more intimate Puccini aria, ‘Che gelida manina’ from La bohème.

In Autumn 2023, when Pene Pati sang in La bohème at the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, Opera magazine found his interpretation of Rodolfo to be “engaging and wonderfully sung … delighting the audience with his bright and sunny timbre, ample volume and plenty of squillo.” The reviewer noted Pati’s on-stage chemistry with his Mimì – his wife, the Egyptian-born soprano Amina Edris. On Nessun Dorma the Pati-Edris romance blossoms not in Puccini, but in the touching ‘Cherry Duet’ from Mascagni’s charming romantic comedy L’amico Fritz. As Pene Pati recounts: ”Singing with Amina is one of the biggest highlights for me. The Cherry Duet goes right back to the first duets she and I sang together … Fritz and Suzel slowly fall in love … There's something nice about that. And singing with Amina is just the cherry on the cake.”

TRACKLIST

Giacomo Puccini

1. Turandot, Act III: "Nessun Dorma"

Charles Gounod
Faust, Act III

2. "Salut, demeure chaste et pure"
3. “Et toi, malheureux Faust” - C'est l'enfer qui t'envoie"  - world premiere recording

Jules Massenet

4. Manon, Act III: "Je suis seul”- Ah! fuyez douce image"

Pietro Mascagni

5. L'Amico Fritz, Act II: Cherry Duet “Suzel, buon di”

Giuseppe Verdi

6. Macbeth - Act IV : “Dove siam”- “La patria tradita”

Hector Berlioz

7. La Damnation de Faust - Act IV: "Nature immense"

Jules Massenet

8. Werther - Act IV : "Traduire”- “Ah! Bien souvent” - “Pourquoi me réveiller”

Giacomo Donizetti

9. Dom Sébastien - Act II : "Seul sur la terre"

Giacomo Puccini

10. La Bohème - Act I : "Che gelida manina"

Saverio Mercadante

11. Il Bravo - Act I : Duet "Non sai tu che non avrai più del ciel"

Ernest Guiraud

12. Frédégonde - Act I : Duet . "'Nous partirons ce soir”

Gaetano Donizetti

13. La Favorite - Act IV : "La Maîtresse du roi?”

Gaetano Donizetti

14. La Favorite - Act IV : “Ange si pur"
15. Lucia di Lammermoor - Act III : "Tombe degli avi miei …fra poco a me ricovero"

Giuseppe Verdi

16. Macbeth - Act IV : "O figli, o figli miei… Ah, la paterna mano"

Fromental Halévy

17. La Juive - Act II : Trio “Tu possèdes, dit-on”

Digital bonus track:

18. Air de Faust traditionnel, Act 3: "Et toi, malheureux Faust … C'est l'enfer qui t'envoie" with recitative