Pene Pati, Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine & Emmanuel Villaume - Nessun dorma (2024) [Hi-Res]

Taking its title, Nessun Dorma, from the greatest tenor hit of them all, Pene Pati’s second album balances favourite numbers with operatic rarities – two of them in world premiere recordings. 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. In the words of the Telegraph, Pene Pati possesses an “extraordinary gift for producing a golden thread of sound that can swell without strain to magnificence,” while Opera magazine has lauded his “distinctively clear, marvellously sunny timbre, innate musicality and exceptionally vivid textual projection”. For the tenor himself, Nessun Dorma “showcases my love of the art of storytelling and the emotions it can elicit … As you listen to the album, I hope it takes you on an emotional journey.”