NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

Malta in the spotlight

Sunday 20 April 2008

A Tribute to Pavarotti

Tickets are fast selling to this years Malta event, which is a homage to the recently deceased Luciano Pavarotti (1935-2007). The concert, dubbed "A Tribute to Pavarotti," will be held at the St George's Square in Valletta, Malta, on 12 July 2008 and features Joseph Calleja, Nataliya Kovalova (soprano) and George Petean (baritone). Brian Schembri will conduct the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra. Tickets are available from Malta Ticket.

Festa Opera Malta

Plans are underway for a Malta cultural event in Frankfurt, Germany, scheduled for 14th June 2008, showcasing Maltese culture and art. Under the heading "Festa Opera," Joseph Calleja is to perform together with his wife soprano Tatiana Lisnic and accompanied by pianist and conductor Mro. Brian Schembri in an exclusive concert at the prestigious Alte Oper in Frankfurt. The event is organised by Mehr Malta and more information can be obtained from their website or by downloading the following promotional flyer. Tickets are available from the Alte Oper Frankfurt website.

Calleja convinces in Washington

Sunday 6 April 2008

Success for Joseph Calleja at the Washington National Opera as the Duke in Rigoletto. "His tenor showed no hint of strain," ConcertoNet's reviewer wrote after the first performance, "and his ability to diminuendo a high B natural recalled the heyday of DiStefano and Bjoerling." Baltimore Sun's reviewer was equally impressed and concluded that "Calleja proved to be an exemplary stylist" with "delicious diminuendos."

Read all reviews here

Audio streams from Chicago Lyric Opera

Wednesday 26 September 2007

The Chicago Lyric Opera has announced that the opening performance of La Traviata on the 29th of September, will be broadcast live via 98.7 WFMT Chicago. The performance starts at 18:30 local time (London 00:30, Sydney 09:30, the following day). The Lyric Opera is also offering a podcast of an interview with soprano Elizabeth Futral and Joseph Calleja in their series Backstage at the Lyric.

98.7 WFMT Chicago streams        Chicago Lyric Opera podcast

Pavarotti dies in his Modena home at 71

Tuesday 11 September 2007

Luciano Pavarotti (1935-2007) passed away in his native Modena, Italy, in the early hours of September 6 2007. Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in July 2006, the celebrated tenor fought a long battle against the disease that eventually took his life on Thursday morning. From rehearsals in Chicago, Joseph Calleja expresses his grief and condolences with the extraordinary tenor's family and friends - "The world will miss the biggest opera superstar it has ever seen," Calleja says.

Calleja debuts with the Chicago Lyric Opera

Saturday 1 September 2007

Calleja makes his debut with the Chicago Lyric Opera in October 2007, as Alfredo in La Traviata under Bruno Bartoletti and with Elisabeth Futral as Violetta and Mark Delavan as Germont.

Visit the Chicago Lyric Opera website 

Calleja signs with NnG Promotions

Friday 27 July 2007

Joseph Calleja has appointed NnG Promotions as his local representatives on Malta. The Malta based company has organised a number of successful concerts in recent years for international stars including Sting, Roger Waters, Elton John, Eros Ramazzotti, Bryan Adams and Josè Carreras. NnG director Nigel Camilleri had the following comment to the Times of Malta after signing with Calleja: "We are very proud to represent Joseph Calleja locally and to organise his events. We have worked with international stars in the past but the opportunity for us to work with a Maltese international star is very exciting".

Visit the NnG website     The Malta Times article

Calleja replaces Villazon in concert with Netrebko

TUESday 17 July 2007

Joseph Calleja replaces an indisposed Rolando Villazon in Mannheim, Germany, in a concert on 18 July 2007. The concert is part of a tour in Germany during the months of July and August with Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazon.

More information here (in German).

The Summer Schedule

TUESday 26 June 2007

Joseph Calleja ends the month of June in London with Nicias in Massenet's Thaïs in concert performance at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, London. This is Calleja's debut in the role and he will sing it opposite Renee Fleming (Thaïs) and Simone Alberghini (Athanaël). The dates, 27 and 29 June, are sold out. More information here.
        The following week Calleja will perform on Malta in a gala concert that marks the 10th anniversary of his career. The backdrop is the impressive cathedral of Mdina and Calleja is backed by his wife, international soprano Tatiana Lisnic and the Sofia National Opera Orchestra under the baton of the Maltese conductor Brian Schembri. The concert takes place on the 7th of July and a few tickets are still available from MaltaTicket.
       On the 13th of July the same ensemble performs at the Henley Festival in Henley-on-Thames just south of London. The festival runs from 11-15 July and tickets can be acquired here.

More dates in the calendar.

The 2007-2008 Season

Thursday 21 June 2007

Two new roles to his repertory and the Verdi Requiem in Copenhagen in November are two of the novelties when the schedule for the 2007-2008 was released today. Calleja will add the role of Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly to his repertory in Bari (Italy) in February 2008 and the role of Ruggero in La Rondine in Trieste (Italy) June 2008. He makes his debut with the Chicago Lyric Opera in October 2007 with Verdi's La Traviata and returns to the the Vienna State Opera in December 2007 in the same opera, while the Met re-engages him in Macbeth in May 2008. More dates in the calendar.

Corrections: It was reported here that Calleja will be singing in Madama Butterfly in both Bari and Trieste; he will only perform the role of Pinkerton in Bari, whereas in Trieste he will be performing the role of Ruggero in Puccini's La Rondine. The Met has re-engaged Calleja in May 2008, not April as previously stated.

Zürich Hallenstaden La Traviata

MONday 7 May 2007

The Zürich-based GoodNews Productions and Companions Amsterdam is producing a large venue staging of La Traviata 21 - 25 November 2007 in the Hallenstadion, Zürich. The event will count with the participation of over 450 people, and the cast of singers include Swiss soprano Noëmi Nadelmann and Moldovian soprano Tatiana Lisnic as Violetta Valery, Joseph Calleja and the Spanish tenor Xavier Moreno as Alfredo Germont and Roberto Servile and Jacek Strauch as Germont père. More information available from the Companions Amsterdam website or GoodNews (in German). Tickets are available from TicketCorner or you can download a pdf ticket order form here.

Calleja takes Vienna by storm

Thursday 22 March 2007

Standing ovations for Joseph Calleja in Vienna, where he performed in three roles during the months of February and March and in the span of just eight days. Calleja was in Vienna to perform in Elisir d'Amore and Traviata, but unexpectedly sang a run of La Boheme as Rolando Villazon, a hot favourite in the Austrian capital and the tenor cast for the production, cancelled on just a few hours notice. Calleja accepted the leading role just 90 minutes before the curtain went up and walked off the stage to immense critical acclaim. The Salzburg Nachrichten reported on 21 February 2007:

"VIENNA (SN). A shock for the audience at the Vienna State opera: not until just before the beginning of the "La Bohème" performance they discovered that public favourite Rolando Villazón would be dropping out. His voice was not in good shape. The cancellation was not certain until an hour and a half before curtain time. "Disgraceful!! Scandalous!! Money back!!" the infuriated opera lovers are reported to have yelled. After all, they had paid "enormously high ticket prices". This was reported by APA (the Austrian Press Agency) on Tuesday. The audience had vented its anger in particular because of the information policy at the State Opera. From an artistic point of view they had nothing to be upset about: after all, Joseph Calleja was available. The singer from Malta - even though he stepped a bit into the background lately- still ranks among the top tenors in the world. The APA wrote euphorically: Calleja not only stepped in for his colleague, but he also "made us totally forget his existence for at least two and a half hours".

More in reviews.

Calleja and Lisnic at the Henley Festival (UK)

Monday 19 February 2007

Joseph Calleja together with soprano Tatiana Lisnic, will perform at the Henley Festival in Henley-on-Thames, UK, on Friday 13 July 2007, accompanied by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. This is the same arrangement as for the 10th Anniversary Concert on Malta on July 7. Tickets can be acquired here.

Calleja in concert in Prague (Czech Republic)

Wednesday 10 January 2007

Joseph Calleja will be singing at the Municipal House in Prague tonight at 19:30 and Czech television visited one of the rehearsals. The footage from Czech TV can be seen here and here (footage in Czech).

New performance dates in 2007

FRIday 5 JANUARY 2007

Joseph Calleja will perform in Lucia di Lammermoor in Moscow on the 29th of January 2007, and tickets are now also available from Malta Ticket for the gala concert on Malta on 7 July 2007, which will be held at the cathedral square in Mdina.
             Please also note that the date for the Budapest concert was wrong in the Calendar: the concert is on the 9th of February and not the 10th as was first stated.

More in Calendar

Opera News: "The Knight of Malta"

TUESday 19 DECEmber 2006

Under the heading "The Knight of Malta," Opera News, a Metropolitan Opera Guild publication, has published a feature article on Joseph Calleja. It coincides with Calleja's last run of performances of Rigoletto at the Met opera, December 2006.

Read the article here.

Calleja performs in the 2006 Tucker Gala

Wednesday 15 November 2006

The annual Richard Tucker Music Foundation Gala took place in New York's Avery Fisher Hall (The Lincoln Center) on 12 November 2006, where Joseph Calleja sang the aria 'Ah! Lève-toi soleil' from Gounod’s 'Romeo and Juliet' and also teamed up with soprano Elisabeth Futral for excerpts from La Traviata. The list of performers included tenors Marcello Giordani and José Cura, sopranos Patricia Racette, Sondra Radvanovsky, Angela Marambio and Aprile Millo, as well as baritones/basses James Morris, Samuel Ramey and René Pape. It was the first time in many years that singers under Met-contract were allowed to take part in fund-raising benefits.

Read Vivien Schweitzer's report for the New York Times here.

Great success for Calleja at the Met

Wednesday 1 November 2006

Good reviews for Joseph Calleja after his debut as the Duke in Rigoletto at the Metropolitan Opera. Below is a selection from the press:

"I want to hear the highly touted Mr. Calleja again because his singing on this night was curiously uneven. His voice is rich and expressive; his sound has body and carries well. There is a slightly nasal quality to his tone that sometimes came across as a stamp of character but at other times seemed evidence of tightness, especially in his top notes. And his execution was overly casual, as in his tendency to clip off the endings of phrases. Still, there are winning qualities to his singing and he projects youthful energy."

Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times, 28 October 2006
Read the whole review here.

 

"The début of the twenty-eight-year-old Joseph Calleja, in a revival of the Otto Schenk production of “Rigoletto,” must count as one of the more interesting in the Met’s history. The Maltese tenor (in the role of the Duke) possesses a voice of extraordinary sweetness and warmth, as well as considerable personal charm—factors that almost completely disguise a somewhat wayward sense of rhythm and a not-quite-complete technique."

The New Yorker, 6 November 2006

Read all reviews here.

Related to his debut, Calleja spoke with the Met's Vanessa Palo and talked about his career and his feelings about the role of the Duke. You can listen to parts of the interview at the Met's website.

Calleja makes his Met debut

Monday 16 October 2006

Joseph Calleja will be making his debut at the Metropolitan Opera of New York when the first performance of the season's Rigoletto starts on the 25th of October. Performances run until the 16th of December 2006, this last performance is also part of the Met Broadcasts. The cast includes celebrated verdi baritones Juan Pons and Carlos Alvarez as Rigoletto, whereas Ekaterina Siurina makes her Met debut as Gilda.

Calleja will also be singing three performances of the Duke at Trieste's Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi in November, with Daniel Oren conducting. Rigoletto is Renato Bruson.

More dates in the calendar.

// updated: July 1, 2008 13:34

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