The big, honeyed tone - the purest and most appealing Italianate sound since Pavarotti - has acquired a slightly darker tinge."The New Yorker
REVIEWS: RIGOLETTO
5 performances of Verdi's opera Rigoletto at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, April 2009
Opera Today
“Joseph Calleja is one of the new crop of exciting young tenors in the Italian repertory. A sturdy, masculine figure — taller than almost anyone else at the court of Mantua — he acted and sang the seductive Duke with careless elegance and athletic ease, with a fluid, forthright tenor and sudden diminuendos at moments for dramatic effect. It was a completely reliable performance if not yet quite so polished as (for example) Ramón Vargas ten years ago, but in that line and heading in that graceful direction."
John Yohalem, Opera Today, 10 April 2009
The New Yorker
“In his latest outing as the Duke in Rigoletto, Joseph Calleja proves himself to be the 'Brazil Of Singers', he's the tenor of the future, and always will be. The big, honeyed tone - the purest and most appealing Italianate sound since Pavarotti - has acquired a slightly darker tinge, but certain elements of craft (breath control, dynamics) remain subjects for him to work on, or perhaps, ignore. (The crowd is with him)."
The New Yorker
Gay City News
"Calleja's debut role at the Met in 2006 was as the Duke in "Rigoletto," and he returned to the role this April in an interesting second cast. He showed that though a cad, the Duke is an aristocrat; the elegance and tenderness of his vocal manner is the veil for his sins."
Eli Jacobson, Gay City News, 14 May 2009
---
THE METROPOLITAN OPERA, Rigoletto
1, 4, 9, 14 & 17 April 2009
| Rigoletto | Roberto Frontali |
| Gilda | Diana Damrau |
| The Duke | Joseph Calleja |
| Sparafucile | Raymond Aceto |
| Conductor | Riccardo Frizza |
| Orchestra/choir | The Metropolitan Opera Chorus & Orchestra |
