REVIEWS: RIGOLETTO

Washington Post

Calleja is certainly a tenor to reckon with. His voice has a light lyric quality coupled with considerable size; a slight nasal cast, but colored throughout with flecks of burnished gold.

Anne Midget, The Washington Post, 31 March 2008

All Arts Review

Joseph Calleja as the womanizing Duke of Mantua had a full round sound full of emotion throughout the range and the intensities

Bob Anthony, All Arts Review

Washington Times

[...] the Duke of Mantua, tenor Joseph Calleja boasted a powerful voice [...] he handled his first-act aria "Questa o quella" ("Among the beautiful ladies") with just the right touch of arrogance, exhibiting more of the same in the well-known "La donna e mobile" ("Women are fickle"), his ironic refrain in Act III.

TL Ponick, The Washington Times

DCist

Joseph Calleja's Duke was brassy and (appropriately) unsympathetic, physically reminiscent of the later portraits of Henry VIII. The voice is razor-edged, with a rapid-fire vibrato, the upper extent of which, at least, tends to be true to the pitch.

Charles Downy, DCist, 31 March 2008

ConcertoNet.com

Joseph Calleja was extraordinary as the Duke of Mantua. His voice is supple and refined and he possesses an unusual ease in the top register. His tenor showed no hint of strain and his ability to diminuendo a high B natural recalled the heyday of DiStefano and Bjoerling. He was lascivious in his portrayal of the Duke and lilting in his delivery of the arias. It was indeed a happy evening for the tenor!

Micaele Sparacino, Concertonet.com

Baltimore Sun

It's been even longer since I've encountered in an opera house a tenor who could perform the role of the Duke as stylishly as Joseph Calleja did here. His voice revealed a fast, but not unpleasant, vibrato and a penetrating power that never turned harsh. Above all, Calleja proved to be an exemplary stylist, as witnessed by such touches as the delicious diminuendos he produced in the duet with Gilda and the perennial hit tune La donna e mobile (unlike many a tenor, he made sure the second verse of that aria sounded different vocally from the first).

Tim Smith, The Baltimore Sun

Washington Blade

[...] Joseph Calleja sang the Duke with perfectly flippant charm and sexual seduction. It's been a long time since I've heard a tenor go for the money notes and nail them effortlessly, and Calleja gives the impression that Verdi's high notes are just the beginning of his upper register. Add to this the tenor's wonderful phrasing of the Duke's line (with an occasionally unfortunate tendency towards being syrupy in act three) and he's damned near perfect.

Greg Marzullo, Washington Blade, 4 April 2008