He was [...] the best thing on this evening. Calleja has a glorious, gratifyingly old-fashioned timbre, a terrific upper register and an ongoingly improving technique"
DIE PRESSE,
21 February 2007
REVIEWS: LA BOHÈME
An unexpected run of La Bohème at the Staatsoper in Vienna, as Joseph Calleja subsituted for Rolando Villzaon in the 11th hour. The role was Rodolfo.
The Salzburg Nachrichten
Voiceless in Vienna: Villazón Forced to Cancel
"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 favorite 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".
Salzburger Nachrichten, 21 February 2007
Kurier Vienna
"Joseph Calleja, the Maltese tenor, took the State Opera by surprise: stepping in at the last minute for his indisposed colleague Rolando Villazón on Monday in Puccini's "La Bohème", and celebrating a major triumph [...] The judgment of many people: "A voice that radiates even more lyricism than Villazón's tenor".
Kurier Vienna, 21 February 2007
Die Presse
"Joseph Calleja, the substitute from Malta, who also sings leading roles, swiftly managed to allay the discontent. He was (along with Boaz Daniel as Marcello) the best thing on this evening. Calleja has a glorious, gratifyingly old-fashioned timbre, a terrific upper register and an ongoingly improving technique."
Die Presse, 21 February 2007
Der Standard
"Calleja has an oldfashioned but captivating timbre. That certain something is there - it rises above all this turbulence because it is borne aloft on unavoidable spontaneity. As Rodolfo he effectively and cultivatedly provides the essential high passages....his sizable voice easily cuts through the orchestra."
Ljubisa Tosic, Der Standard, 21 February 2007
Wiener Zeitung
"But it wouldn't be the State Opera if a substitute had not been found "at the last minute" (cancellation: 6:00 P.M.). And it wouldn't be the State Opera audience if they had not created a spectator-generated biotope of good-will for the aforementioned substitute. And this was the case here as well: Joseph Calleja, the 28-year-old Maltese tenor, put his heart and soul into his first aria as Rodolfo, and huge waves of epic applause came rolling in. But Calleja, who first raised his voice in song here in 2003 and has already released two area CD's, has plenty of capital at his disposal. Certainly he cannot call the elasticity and the on-target accuracy of a Villazón his own, but he does have a powerful vocal apparatus at his command: with fulsome, untameable expressiveness, yet a round-sory vocal color - made to measure for Puccini's full-hearted melodies."
Wiener Zeitung, 20 February 2007
Die Presse
State Opera: Villazón's Absence from "La Bohème" Sparked an Uproar
"When tenor Rolando Villazón dropped out of the long-awaited "La Bohème" performance at the State Opera he provoked voluble storms of protest. The main reason for the audience's irritation was because they only found out about the change shortly before the performance. For all of this, Joseph Calleja provided a big surprise when he took over the role of Rodolfo in Franco Zeffirelli's production and wound up being cheered as the sensation of the evening. The boos came somewhat hastily when the audience found out from an onstage announcement that Villazón would not be singing. But this annoyance was largely directed at the information strategy at the State Opera. The excuse was that it had only been definite at 6:00 P.M. that the star tenor would not be appearing because of a sore throat. Still time enough to have informed the spectators sooner, the protesters claimed: "Disgrace - scandal - money back!"
When at least nobody left the hall during intermission, this was less attributable to the enormous cost of the tickets but rather to the fact that Calleja not only took over for his colleague but also gave a performance that made everyone forget the other tenor's existence for at least two and a half hours. In true Puccini style, he radiated the kind of emotion that brought tears to the eyes, a voice, that reminded us of the great Italian tenors of yesteryear, and, first and foremost, rang out more expansively and lyrically than Villazón's.
By contrast Ildikó Raimondi sounded scratchy as Musetta. She went for the shrill aspects at the cost of the music. There was no way to find out if this was because of her rather free interpretation of the role or if Villazón might possibly have given her his cold. Tamar Iveri as Mimì and Boaz Daniel as the painter Marcello were in better voice. The rest: solid, workmanlike performances, nobody outdid himself. From a theatrical point of view, Zeffirelli's realistic but magnificently designed settings filled the stage excellently.
The - admittedly few - boos directed at conductor Claude Schnitzler were undeserved. He may have meant a bit too well with Puccini's sentimental strudel dough, and rolled out the score a little too widely, but he proved he has a feel for the great arcs of tension. He coaxed a fulsome tone and a few highlights out of the orchestra. And the chorus also came across well-disposed and experienced. As of Tuesday morning, nobody at the State Opera was able to say when Villazón would be in good voice again."
Die Presse, 20 February 2007
Image Gallery
 (01) |
 (02) |
PHOTO CREDITS: (01) Joseph Calleja as Rodolfo
(02) Tamara Iveri as Mimi and Joseph Calleja as Rodolfo.
CLICK FOR LARGER PHOTOS All photos Axel/Vienna Staatsoper GMBH
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LA BOHÈME, The State Opera, Vienna
19 February 2007
1010 Wien, Opernring 2
Telephone: +43(1) 51444-2250
http://www.staatsoper.at/