“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.”

“This semi-staging also benefits from Pene Pati’s Roméo who, in the final act, explodes into a phenomenal vocal performance.”

“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 brought requisite ardour and gleaming sound to Roméo, melding beautifully with Nadine Sierra in all four of their duets. Pati impressed even when he wasn’t courting his lover, including a glowing account of the dreamy ​‘Ah! Léve-toi soleil!”

“He’s got a vigorous, full-bodied sound with a lustrous mid-range and glorious, perfectly placed top notes, including one long-held stratospheric closer that would have sounded like showboating if it hadn’t been so magnificent. Pati sings in a gleaming, sensuous stream of sound, with heroic accents in more athletic passages and a warm, tenderly inviting depth for moments of romantic intimacy.”

“He sang with warm, Italianate tenor sound and managed adroitly to make his character more than a dim-witted yokel.”

“the surprise of the night was tenor Pene Pati, a wonderful discovery as Riccardo Percy…He has an extremely attractive voice, bigger than that of a pure light tenor, very homogeneous throughout the entire range”

“The central love interest of Amina Edris and Pene Pati offers some absolutely superb, effortless singing, and real dramatic ability.”

“Pene Pati was making his New York debut and he sang with a beautiful tone in ​“La donna è mobile”

“The fluency and brilliance of Pene Pati’s singing, most notably, is a delight that never stales”

“Ingénu tenor Pene Pati is purely and simply the vocal embodiment of the Duke of Mantua, possessing the vocal swagger, the freshness of voice, and the creative energy that makes the Duke, indeed all youth, lovable. The artistic achievement of this debut in a major role on a major stage was formidable, this young artist fusing surprisingly graceful stage movement with nearly impeccable vocal delivery. And there was solid tenorial attitude. Aplenty.”

“the Duke of Mantua, sung by tenor and Adler fellow Pene Pati. Pati comes across as an almost boyish, though exuberantly puckish, playboy…[his voice] was clarion clear and hit all the high notes, most notably in his Act 3 showpiece aria ​“La donna è mobile.”

“It seemed luxury casting to have the rising New Zealand tenor Pene Pati as the messenger.”

“Tenor Pene Pati was an unusually vivid and powerful Messenger”

“By far the most talented and promising singer was the Samoan-born Aucklander tenor Darren Pene Pati, who sang Tombe degli avi miei…[he] had a wonderful Italianate sound and superb vocal control harnessed to subtle phrasing [and] could effortless fill the Royal Opera House.”

“Unspoken but unignorable is the pressure for young opera singers to own the stage and inhabit a character. Hence the golden-voiced New Zealand tenor Darren Pene Pati won the audience prize with Donizetti’s Tombe degli avi miei”

“You will know him for years to come, and thrill to his voice of golden trumpet just as the crowded house in San Francisco did tonight…Pati took the final note [in the final scene of Lucia di Lammermoor], with an open-throated, flawless, powerful high D…and held it pure and solid, not a show-off, just a peak moment, which seemed to go on for minutes.”