Read on to discover 7 times classical music provided a rousing soundtrack for national and international sport, as chosen by tenor Pene Pati...
Music and sport... Luciano Pavarotti sings ‘Nessun Dorma’ at the FIFA World Cup, 1990
In 2008, someone asked me, ‘Do you know any opera?’ When I said no, they said, ‘Well listen to Pavarotti.’ So I YouTubed him, and 'Nessun Dorma' at the FIFA World Cup was the first thing that popped up. I couldn’t stop listening to it. With its emotional build-up to the big, high note, this song is absolutely appropriate for football. When Pavarotti sings ‘Vincerò’ (‘I will win’), we forget that he’s singing about love; we just want to win! And unlike most pieces, which taper out after the big climax, this takes you to cloud nine and stops there.
Pene Pati sings the Invictus Games anthem at the Royal Albert Hall
One of my favourite memories has to be singing the Invictus Games anthem – ‘I Am’ – at the Royal Albert Hall in London, in front of Her Majesty. A high-ranking army official came over while we were waiting nervously backstage and told us that military protocol required everyone to be clean-shaven. Whether he was joking or not, we absolutely bolted to shave on the spot! I don’t usually get nervous performing, but this one had me sweating a bit.
Music and sport... Kiri Te Kanawa sings ‘World in Union’ at the Rugby World Cup, 1991
‘World in Union’, which is based on ‘Jupiter’ from Holst’s The Planets, has become the Rugby World Cup Anthem. One of my first memories as a child is seeing Kiri Te Kanawa singing it on TV. I didn’t know who she was; I just thought she had a beautiful voice, but I found it really majestic. And that sense of majesty is exactly what makes it such a good fit for rugby: a game where you have to crush someone on the field,
but then shake their hand afterwards and say ‘well played’.
Zadok the Priest at the Football Champions League
A barber in London once said to me, ‘I know this awesome opera song’ and played me the anthem from the Football Champions League. I was like, ‘Oh wow, brother, why are you listening to Handel's Zadok the Priest?’ The tune was exactly the same! But then I realised that it made total sense to choose a tune that is synonymous with coronations, because the winner of the Champions League is basically the king of all football players; there is something regal about being in that position.
Andrea Bocelli sings ‘Time to Say Goodbye’ as Leicester City win the Premier League, 2016
You might think 'Time to Say Goodbye' is the weirdest song to sing at a celebration, but it worked well in that context because everybody knew it. It doesn’t have the same emotion as ‘Nessun Dorma’, but it does have the same singalong quality, and on this occasion, when Andrea Bocelli sang it, everyone was chanting along. Plus, on some level it makes sense for the winners to sing about saying goodbye: they’ve done their thing and have nothing else to prove.
Music and sport... Montserrat Caballé and Freddie Mercury sing ‘Barcelona’ at the Olympic Opening Ceremony, 1992
There was something about this 1987 song, featuring Caballé and Mercury, each singing in their own style, that felt like a tribute to both classical and pop music. You really felt that Freddie Mercury was paying homage to classical music and saying, ‘This is where my music came from.’ Sadly he died in 1991, so Caballé went on stage alone in 1992, accompanied by his vocals.
Torvill and Dean skate to Ravel’s Boléro at the 1984 Winter Olympics
This was a brilliant choice of music by Torvill and Dean. There was something hypnotic about hearing Boléro’s utterly metronomic tempo while watching the skaters glide slowly across the ice in sync. Then there was that sense of emotional crescendo: Ravel's musical layers piled up, little by little, as the moves on the ice became gradually more intricate. It goes to show that the right music at a sporting event can really change how people perceive it.
Who is Pene Pati?
Pene Pati is a Samoan-born New Zealand tenor with a lyrical tone often compared to that of Pavarotti. A sports enthusiast in his youth, he was required to join his school choir to be able to play rugby, and this led to musical studies in Auckland, Cardiff and San Francisco. He gained prominence as part of the operatic trio Sol3 Mio, and has performed leading roles at San Francisco Opera, Opéra National de Paris and the Metropolitan Opera. He releases Serenata a Napoli, an album of Sicilian songs with Il Pomo D’Oro, in September.