Presto Recording of the Week
8th April 2022
Opera
May 2022
Disc of the Month
BBC Music Magazine Choice
May 2022
Pene Pati (tenor), Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, Choeur de l'Opéra national de Bordeaux, Emmanuel Villaume
Verdi: Rigoletto, Act 2: "Ella mi fu rapita..." (Duca), "Parmi veder le lagrime..." (Duca), "Possente amor" (Duca, Chorus)
Verdi: La donna è mobile (from Rigoletto)
Gounod: Roméo et Juliette, Act 2: "L’Amour!..." (Romeo), Ah! Lève-toi soleil" (Romeo)
Rossini: Guillaume Tell, Act 4: "Ne m'abandonne pas, espoir de la vengeance!" (Arnold), "Asile héréditaire..." (Arnold, Chorus), "Amis, amis" (Arnold, Chorus)
Donizetti: Una furtiva lagrima (from L'elisir d'amore)
Meyerbeer: Les Huguenots, Act 1: "Non loin des vieilles tours..." (Raoul), "Ah, quel spectacle enchanteur..." (Raoul), "Plus blanche que la blanche hermine" (Raoul, Chorus)
Verdi: La battaglia di Legnano, Act 1: "O magnanima e prima delle città lombarde..." (Arrigo), "La pia materna mano" (Arrigo)
Rossini: Moïse et Pharaon, Act 2: "Vous avez entendu..." (Pharaon), "Moment fatal!" (Aménophis, Pharaon)
Gounod: Polyeucte: Source délicieuse
Donizetti: Roberto Devereux, Act 3: "Ed ancor la tremenda porta..." (Roberto), "Come un spirto angelico..." (Roberto, Chorus), "Bagnato il sen di lagrime" (Roberto, Chorus)
Massenet: Manon, Act 2: "Instant charmant, où la crainte fait trêve..." (Des Grieux), "En fermant les yeux" (Des Grieux)
Meyerbeer: Quel trouble affreux (from L'Étoile du Nord)
Godard, B: Cachès dans cet asile (Jocelyn)
Samoan tenor Pene Pati matches favourite showpiece arias with rarer operatic gems in a programme of Verdi, Rossini, Donizetti, Meyerbeer, Gounod and Benjamin Godard.
"A generosity of spirit not always to be taken for granted with tenors is in constant evidence on Pene Pati’s debut album…His voice certainly has the colour for both the French and Italian repertoire presented here…The sweet-toned elegance and sense of line he brings to the Duke (Rigoletto) in the opening tracks is matched with rollicking vigour when he gets to ‘Possente amor’." - BBC Music Magazine, May 2022.
