Pene Pati
“Pati immediately scores with his high-placed and open sound, with a naturally sunny vocal hue…As well as the bravura numbers, there is an innate sense of style and elegance at work here.”
(5* Album Review, Opera Now, March 2022)
With a voice described as “a golden thread of sound that can swell without strain to magnificence” (The Telegraph), Samoan tenor Pene Pati was awarded the 2025 Opus Klassik Solo Recording of the Year for Nessun Dorma, his second release as an exclusive artist for Warner Classics. His latest addition to the catalogue, Serenata a Napoli, a specially curated collaboration with Il Pomo d’Oro, promises to be one of the highlights of the 2025/2026 season’s releases.
On stage this season Pene Pati further expands his repertoire with a debut in Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann in a new production by Lydia Steier at Staatsoper Berlin conducted by Bertrand de Billy and he sings Massenet’s Werther at Opéra Comique in a new staging by Ted Huffmann, conducted by Raphäel Pichon. Further house debuts include Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor) at Teatro alla Scala and Tito (La Clemenza di Tito) at Opernhaus Zurich. In concert version, he sings Gounod’s Faust at Amsterdam’s historic Concertgebouw under Stéphane Denève as well as Verdi’s Requiem at Teatro San Carlo under Nicola Luisotti and Berlioz’s Requiem at Philharmonie de Paris under Philippe Jordan. Pene Pati will also make his North American solo recital debut at New York’s prestigious Park Avenue Armory accompanied by Ronny Michael Greenberg.
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In his core repertoire, Pene Pati has appeared with all the world’s greatest companies on both sides of the Atlantic including as Faust at Opéra national de Paris, Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore) at Opéra national de Paris and San Francisco Opera; Duca (Rigoletto) at Staatsoper Berlin, Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, Arena di Verona and the Metropolitan Opera; Roméo (Roméo et Juliette) at San Francisco Opera, Opéra Comique and Opéra national de Bordeaux; the title role in La Damnation de Faust at Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Alfredo (La traviata) at Staatsoper Berlin, Deutsche Oper Berlin and Dutch National Opera; Orombello (Beatrice di Tenda) at Opéra national de Paris; Percy (Anna Bolena) at Wiener Staatsoper; Fernand (La Favorite) at Opéra national de Bordeaux; Des Grieux (Manon) at Gran Teatre del Liceu and Staatsoper Hamburg; Rodolfo (La Bohème) at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Canadian Opera Company, Bayerische Staatsoper, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera and Royal Opera & Ballet. In the title role of Mitridate, re di Ponto he has appeared at Staatsoper Berlin and Salzburger Festspiele, and in a special relationship with Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, he has performed there as Amenophis (Moïse et Pharaon), as the title role in La Clemenza di Tito, and as Nadir (Les Pêcheurs de perles).
In addition to his carefully constructed solo programmes, Pene Pati’s concert repertoire includes Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, Mendelssohn’s Elias, Verdi’s Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 and Berlioz’s, Requiem.
Pene Pati is beloved by audiences for his warm and winning personality as well as for his “round and sunshine filled” voice (Le Monde) and enjoyed great competition success in his formative years, taking top prizes and audience choice awards at several competitions including Operalia and Neue Stimmen. He received his master’s degree from the Wales International Academy of Voice and was an Adler Fellow at San Francisco Opera.
@pene.pati on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and @penepatitenor on X.
Contacts
Shirley Thomson Senior Director, VOICE at HarrisonParrott | Head of CSR
General Management
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Gallery




“The Samoan audience favourite Pene Pati is allowed to turn his usual sympathetic profile 180 degrees as the disgusting libertine Hoffmann, which he succeeds in doing both in acting and in dramatic phrasing. From the almost academically cynical “Kleinzach” aria to the deeply felt duet with Antonia, everything is convincing. His much-praised, honey-sweet timbre acts as a natural shock absorber against any caricature-like exaggeration.”
“The boundless joy of his love shone effortlessly through the score, he carried the Libiamo mood confidently on his musical shoulders through the evening. He weaved his anger towards his supposed competitor for Violetta into his role in a well-dosed way, a Verdi tenor and Alfredo par excellence!”
“Floated pianissimos and exquisitely controlled diminuendo [that] are something of a signature of his art. In a voice of such natural amplitude the effect is startling, like a Kashmir shawl, spun so fine that it can be pulled through a finger ring.”
“Words hardly do justice to this young man. At times one feels the age of the great singers has passed — until, suddenly, at the Park Avenue Armory, one emerges. Hear him whenever you can.”
“Pene Pati is at the top of his game and in the role of Mitridate he can use all his expression. Perfectly sung and also alone with a cloak and a throne, he was a very convincing Mitridate who expressively threw the high notes into the hall and, together with the orchestra, provided a lot of action”.
“Pene Pati is an expressive, concise King Mitridate. Vocally, the role challenges the powerful tenor with artistic leaps into the air, which he masters partly in head voice, partly pressed. His warm tenor compensates for this, soft and multifaceted in the middle register and dark depth. He convinces in the changing world of emotions as father, lover, ruler and benefactor”
“Pati has a versatile, flexible voice, with which he mastered the necessary interval jumps and mastered the coloratura. The range of emotions in singing and acting was just as much a part of Pati’s strengths as his sovereignty in the role”.
“The revelation of the evening is called Pene Pati. In the role of Nadir, the Samoan tenor gives a moving performance: luminous, sensual, with a natural ease. His “Je crois entendre encore” is a jewel of phrasing, breath and finesse, where velvety piani contrast with flamboyant highs. An ideal ambassador of French singing, he combines perfect articulation, pure melodic line and impeccable technique. The audience, bewitched, gave him a standing ovation”.
“The Nadir of Pene Pati will remain the event of this evening. Sunny, tender, sensual, the Samoan tenor triumphs in this role that he is taking on for the first time. Everything about Pene Pati seems to flow naturally this evening: a natural, luminous musicality, never forced!”
“Pati proved himself to be a dramatically intense, theatrically effective Rodolfo. He was a strong comedic presence in the first act banter with his Bohemian roommates. With the entrance of Mimi, and, especially Rodolfo’s great aria, Pati exuded the passion that defines a great Puccini tenor.”
“Even before his love interest enters the humble lodging, Pati dazzled with lyric tenor lines of effortless legato and youthful color.”
“The second is at the initiative of a spectator, who, taking advantage of a moment of hesitation between Mathieu Pordoy and Pene Pati As for the choice of the song, says a sonor: ” Nessun Dorma ! ». While he has been stringing together high notes and bravura tunes for nearly two hours, Pene Pati accepts the challenge, triggering thunderous applause in the room.”
“Samoan-born Pene Pati possesses one of the most beautiful tenor voices I’ve heard in years. In addition to a honeyed timbre, Pati is charm personified, a quality that renders Rodolfo all the more appealing. The Act I aria “Che gelida manina” was a moment of pure bliss. This was an ideal Rodolfo, with effortless high notes, charm and dashing stage presence.”
“It should be noted that he dominates his vocal instrument with apparent ease, leaving him the possibility of pianissimo of great beauty as well as gushing and sunny trebles reminiscent of those of Luciano Pavarotti. The opera has barely begun about ten minutes when he appears and, his first words “So, this is really the bailiff’s house?” that we already fall under the spell. The flight of his O nature, full of grace, queen of time and space ends up capsizing us”.
“But his familiarity with the score already seems total, the diction is perfect, never a mistake, a fidelity to the slightest indications, and yet something absolutely personal. Which sheds new light on a score that we know by heart and that we have obviously heard by completely different tenors (and that we certainly do not deny), but here something special happens, which touches deeply”.
“His voice is in prime condition, and his exuberant stage presence suits the high-spirited, hedonistic Duke. First impressions matter and Pati got off to a sterling start with “Questa o quella,” which he sang with style, gleaming tone, and just the right touch of insouciance. His “È il sol dell’anima,” where he convinced Erin Morley’s Gilda of his love, was equally winning with playfulness and joy radiating from his entire countenance.”
“Pati was in very good voice, and his arias startled the audience into reverential breathlessness: indeed, I heard gasps at times during his endeavors”.
“The Samoan Pene Pati is a sumptuously voiced tenor. He boasts a quintessentially lyrical sound, timbered as if made for virtually anything out of the great Romantics’ operatic pen. In Nessun Dorma he once again proves his qualities:”
“Pene Pati’s Faust is the big winner of this hellish evening. Everything in his interpretation is in total adequacy with this character who is by turns fiery, in love, panicked. He offers an anthology “Salut, demeure chaste et pure” with a final pianissimo high of rare sweetness. What a perfectly mastered technique and what a voice, what a projection! All with an almost perfect French diction”.
“Pene Pati, for his debut in the role of Titus, delivers a lesson in singing and psychological intention. He shows a kind of calm serenity in the vocal emission that he puts fully at the service of a successful style and an almost solar plasticity”.
“Pene Pati, already celebrated on other stages as an exceptional tenor, and now in the Hanseatic city, which can hardly believe its luck because of this singer, measured purely by the applause, after every aria!”
“But everyone was put in the shade by the Samoan tenor Pene Pati as the yearning, confused and increasingly desperate Faust. 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 agonising moment when he called out Marguerite’s name in despair simply wrung the heart, and is still echoing in my ear.”
“If I thought Pati was great in Champs-Elysées’s “La Bohème” last season, after “Beatrice,” I will write down his name on my forever short-list”.
“The big-hitting climax of the title track aside, Pene Pati shows off his lyrical side with a combination of Italian and French composers, stretching largely across the 19th Century. With a voice that sounds both effortless and crystal clear, and ably accompanied by his soprano wife Amina Edris and others, the Samoan tenor will win many friends here.”
“The star of the production was tenor Pene Pati as the hopelessly smitten, afraid-to-make-the-move lover Nemorino.”
“Pene Pati was the best {of the opera} because his instrument is of the highest quality, his vocal freshness falls in love, and he also has a presence and bonhomie that they transmit, and that the audience appreciates and immediately connects with him. His aura reminds us on more than one occasion of the remembered Pavarotti, for his scenic smile and his generous means.”
“It is Samoan tenor Pene Pati who steals the show as Rodolfo. He has immense control of his lush voice, equally effective when soaring to high notes and bringing nuance to his pianissimos.”
“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’… Whether as Donizetti’s Nemorino or Massenet’s Des Grieux, Pati gives heartfelt accounts, and in the weightier assignment of Arnold (Guillaume Tell) he brings plangency of tone.”
“The result, let’s say it straight away, is exemplary…[the programme] reveals diction as perfect in French as in Italian, as well as a charm in the phrasing and an irresistible infectiousness…In Meyerbeer and Godard, two rarities are served with just the right amount of sensitivity, avoiding tipping into sentimentality.”
“But more than that, it’s a thorough study of each character’s emotional journey that characterises Pene Pati’s excellence…Therefore, it is not the thunderous brilliance of a demonstrative tenor that he offers us, and can quickly become tiresome, but the delicacy of a tenor with style, which is much more rare and satisfying.”
“Pene Pati seems to be made to sing the French repertoire. The mastery of the language is quite astounding. And, perhaps above all, the style is there.”
“Pene Pati demonstrates great vocal generosity here, and we have to recognise the unlimited power of his timbre, a superbly mastered and harmonious technique throughout his full range, and his ease in the more tender and carnal passages.”
“Pene Pati is a fast rising lyric tenor no longer on the brink but in the midst of a major career. Pati is at the top of his game, equipped with a sizeable voice that rises easily above the staff with no sign of strain, his technique is impeccable and so is his command of French, Italian and Russian.”
“I may as well start right away with the best: Pene Pati as Roméo. We heard resounding proof of the gifts of this Samoan tenor who is a revelation…one remains dazzled by the generosity of his voice whose top range seems to have an utterly fool-proof strength, and seductive timbre. Above all, what a nuanced performance, and what incredible French diction! This is a Roméo we won’t forget.”
(FORUM OPÉRA, MARCH 2020)
“Roméo is embodied by Pene Pati, the Samoan tenor who caused a sensation here last year as Percy in Anna Bolena, and to whom we are attached from the start with his sincere and beautiful timbre. His diction was superlative.”
(5*, OPERA ONLINE, MARCH 2020)
“He sings with excellent French as Roméo. His flexible voice with an ethereal vibrato rises without difficulty into his crystal clear top range. He completes his aria“Ah, leve-toi, soleil” with a long, full messa di voce, and a phenomenal top note in Act III.”
“He proved to us from the first moment that he has everything to be a tenor we will continue to hear about for the next twenty years. The voice is powerful and equal throughout the range, but he’s not all about volume! He is a sensitive, sympathetic and intelligent artist.”
“We can only say that he must be the most exceptional tenor discovery in the last ten years”
















