This is the second release on the
Warner Classics
/
Erato
label by the rising tenor
Pene Pati
, who has gained publicity for his Samoan background but more for a warm lyric voice that one tends to remember even after hearing it for only a short time.
Pati
sticks to the formula that made his self-titled first album a success, with a mixture of French and Italian 19th century music. This is understandable but may seem a trifle unambitious; one hopes that
will take on a full operatic role and make it his own, especially inasmuch as the tenor made his first strong impact as the Duke of Mantua in a 2017 San Francisco Opera production of
Verdi
's
Rigoletto
. He does, however, include some offbeat items, including one world premiere, a piece from
Ernest Guiraud
's unfinished
Frédégonde
(1895).
offers two of
Puccini
's greatest hits, "Nessun dorma" from
Turandot
and "Che gelida manina" from
La bohème
. He has a brilliant top that has been responsible for comparisons to
Luciano Pavarotti
, and that is on spectacular display as an album-capper in the "bonus" track, "Quel trouble inconnu me pénètre," from
Gounod
Faust
, but Pati is not really that kind of a tenor. He doesn't have
Pavarotti
's power, at least not yet. He seems most comfortable in French opera, with its gentler melodic idiom, and he offers convincing readings of some lesser-known material here, like "Seul sur la terre" from
Donizetti
's less-heard but rebounding French opera
Dom Sébastien
. As on his debut,
gets strong support from the
Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine
under conductor
Emmanuel Vuillaume
and from soprano
Amina Edris
, who is his wife, and
Amitai Pati
, his brother. Will
develop into a household name? That remains to be seen, but the voice is sounding great, especially in the harder-to-pull-off French operatic repertory. ~ James Manheim