# Pene Pati: The Samoan Pavarotti



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Pene Pati: the Samoan Pavarotti


Pene Pati remembers his teachers at university telling him: "Don't be ashamed if you don't make it because a lot of Pacific singers won't." In fact, they added, no one from Samoa had ever become an opera star.Pati's reaction? "Well, I'll be the first and I'll prove you wrong."Now, at 34, he has...




www.rawstory.com




Has anyone heard him?


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

I just looked him up on YouTube. A very small, unresonant voice by the sounds of it. Perfectly agreeable, but as with all of today's light tenors, not at all interesting to me and I doubt I'd find him effective in the theatre, even in the lightest of roles.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Op.123 said:


> I just looked him up on YouTube. A very small, unresonant voice by the sounds of it. Perfectly agreeable, but as with all of today's light tenors, not at all interesting to me and I doubt I'd find him effective in the theatre, even in the lightest of roles.


I was afraid of that. Darn it. You'd think we could get a Wagnerian out of some of those sturdily built Samoans. One of the offices I go to specifically hires from the Samoan community and maybe a third of the friendly well fed folk are Samoan in that office.


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Pene Pati: the Samoan Pavarotti
> 
> 
> Pene Pati remembers his teachers at university telling him: "Don't be ashamed if you don't make it because a lot of Pacific singers won't." In fact, they added, no one from Samoa had ever become an opera star.Pati's reaction? "Well, I'll be the first and I'll prove you wrong."Now, at 34, he has...
> ...


His recital CD is available for streaming via Spotify. Frankly, it's pretty awful musically, vocally, and stylistically.

He does bear a resemblance to Pavarotti from the neck down, though.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

I've certainly heard worse, but definitely not comparable with Pavarotti. Sings too much in the mask. It comes off a bit whiny, constricted. My mother used to comment that she was glad I was a lower voice because modern tenors tend to sound like "someone has grabbed by the testicles", and I get a bit of that here.


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

Speaking about resembling Pavarotti, the singer Airam Hernandez has a similar color of the voice. But I remember not liking him too much.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

"It was like growing up in the Von Trapp family from “The Sound of Music:” Performance was simply a part of life for tenor Pene Pati. For as long as he can remember, he sang. He sang to keep his ancestral stories alive, just as Samoans had done for generations before. He sang to entertain the residents at the nursing home where his father worked. He sang as a condition to being part of the school rugby team. His whole family was bursting with song. Even his name seemed tailored for the stage: “Pati” means to clap. But when Pati's aspirations turned to opera — a form of musical storytelling that reminded him of his own cultural heritage — he faced an uphill battle. Could an Island boy make it on the world’s greatest opera stages? That’s the story behind the latest episode of “In Song,” a new video portrait series from San Francisco Opera. Discover the man behind the talent, as Pati invites you into his home in Māngere, New Zealand, for family reunions, laughter and, of course, music."


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