Joseph Calleja

Tenor Joseph Calleja has drawn comparisons from authoritative sources such as The New Yorker to legendary singers including Luciano Pavarotti and Beniamino Gigli. Observers have noted that his distinctive voice, marked by a rapid vibrato, evokes the atmosphere of his native Malta.

Born in Attard, Malta, on January 22, 1978, Calleja received relatively short vocal training conducted entirely within his homeland. Around age 13 he resolved to pursue singing after seeing the Mario Lanza film The Great Caruso. He entered a choir, took up piano studies, and practiced vocal exercises together with solfège. Only in 1994 did he commence formal lessons with tenor Paul Asciak, who observed, "Over a period of three years Joseph's voice assumed many of the qualities of this old school of singing, and developed beautifully into a light, flexible and mellow instrument with both a distinctive timbre and a promising ringing top."

Following those three years Calleja began to register an international presence. He toured Italy with a program of operatic arias and gave his first performance outside Malta in 1997, appearing in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda with the Netherlands Reisopera. Several significant awards came his way, among them a prize in Plácido Domingo's 1999 Operalia International Opera Competition; these honors opened doors to larger roles in Italy and subsequently across Europe and Britain. His U.S. debut occurred as Rinuccio in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina. After 2000 he made initial appearances at leading European theaters: first as Rodolfo in Puccini's La bohème at the Bayerische Staatsoper München and the Frankfurt Opera, then as the Duke in Verdi's Rigoletto at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and the Royal Theatre, Copenhagen.

Calleja issued his debut album, Tenor Arias, on the Decca label in 2004 under conductor Riccardo Chailly, who described him as "a voice that could match the past." He has returned frequently to the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and took part in a 2017-2018 production of Bellini's Norma at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. In Malta he gives an annual outdoor concert at the Granaries plaza in Fosos; the inaugural event featured pop tenor Michael Bolton, while later programs have welcomed additional crossover artists.

He has remained with Decca for subsequent recordings. In 2012 Gramophone magazine named him Artist of the Year, he headlined the Last Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in London, and he released a tribute to Mario Lanza, the performer who first sparked his interest. His solo recording activity strengthened in the late 2010s with the recital Verdi in 2018 and the 2020 album The Magic of Mantovani, which added newly recorded vocal tracks to classic light-music performances by the single-named conductor and orchestra leader Mantovani. He returned in 2023 with the album Sacred Arias.