"Joseph Calleja sings straight to the heart. The tenoreal knight of the powerful countenance, just 27 years young and one of the greatest hopes of the operatic scene, had the effect of a youthfully innocent romantic at his Pro-Arte début in the music hall. His resonant tenor voice radiated an unmistakably shimmering timbre, emotionally direct, outpouring warmth with a golden glow. Always with a tear in his voice."
RECITAL, LAEISZ HALL, HAMBURG: Die Welt, November 2005
REVIEWS: RECITALS & CONCERTS
Reviews of various recitals, concerts and gala.
Laeiszhalle, Hamburg, Germany
17 November 2005
· Münchner RundfunkorchesterDie Welt, 21 november 2005
Languor Without Schmaltz
Laeisz Hall: The Young Tenor Joseph Calleja Conquered the Hearts of His Listeners
Joseph Calleja sings straight to the heart. The tenoreal knight of the powerful countenance, just 27 years young and one of the greatest hopes of the operatic scene, had the effect of a youthfully innocent romantic at his Pro-Arte début in the music hall. His resonant tenor voice radiated an unmistakably shimmering timbre, emotionally direct, outpouring warmth with a golden glow. Always with a tear in his voice. This is literally a part of Donizetti’s indestructible, request concert favorite: “Una furtiva lagrima” with which Mr. Calleja opened the evening.
For all of this, there is never any phony sentimentality in his interpretation of the love elixir romanticism. He rather ennobles it with the virtuous sweetness of a man unlucky in love, returning after the cadence of the “si può morir” aristocratically into the piano of his gently vibrant top voice. In moments like these, we are reminded of the beguiling lyricism of the young Pavarotti, while the effulgent emotionality of the Italian warhorses “Non ti scordar di me”, “Mattinata” or “Torn’ a Surriento” recall to mind the somewhat tear-jerking Mario Lanza.
The Maltese tenor, however, takes the sentimentality of the Italo-American Lanza and with magnificent authenticity of feeling, honesty and believability transforms it into a bel canto artistry, which is always stylistically pure and concurrently profoundly expressive. When Calleja languishes, he does it without falsehood. Tastefully and touchingly he delineates “Ah, lève-toi, soleil” from Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette. The French idiom suits him, of which he gives convincing evidence with an emphatic “Pourquoi me réveiller?” from Massenet’s Werther. Here he combines his noble legato, his overtone-rich voix mixte with a wonderful depth of sensitivity.
He presents the Rigoletto Duke as a thoroughly charming seducer with a fervently articulated “Questa o quella”, today one of the young tenor’s starring roles, which we hope we may hear soon in a guest performance at the State Opera. The Munich Radio Orchestra seconded him valiantly under the direction of Maurizio Barbacini, adding a glowing highlight of its own to the concert with the finely developed crescendi of the overture to “Il barbiere di Siviglia”. Joseph Calleja, however, this poetic tenor by the grace of God scored a direct hit right into our hearts with unadulterated vocal beauty, which would move even the most hard-boiled enemies of bel canto to tears.
Hamburger Abendblatt, 19 Nov 2005:
Tenor With a Glowing Sound (Tenor mit Schmelz)
Joseph Calleja in Laeisz Hall
Anyone who sees him stride out on stage, the broad-shouldered, bearded giant, might fear he was in for a full evening of acoustical brute force – but that’s far from the truth! Joseph Calleja is anything but a tenoreal bruiser with a testosterone-forged structural steel voice. The 27‑year‑old shooting star has a lyrically warm and always slightly covered timbre, the sweetness and glow of which virtually predestine him for the young lover roles, especially the ones in the French repertory.
It comes as no coincidence that the Gounod and Massenet arias turned out to be the highlights of his guest appearance in the merely half-filled Laeisz Hall: here Calleja could give his strengths full rein. His sleek voice with its light vibrato enables him to blend in creamily with the orchestral sound. For all its softness, the voice is always well-focused and fills the hall effortlessly even in mezza voce. Bel canto at its best! Only the extreme top seemed somewhat forced. Even so: Calleja was well worth coming for.
The way in which constant entrances and exits were used to cover the extremely thin singing time and the anything but over-rehearsed orchestral pieces is part and parcel of such evenings – you just have to accept them. But it was a little embarrassing when the Munich Radio Orchestra had to got together with conductor Maurizio Barbacini on the sequence and beginning of two pieces that had already started.
