Full Biography
“Only one lyric tenor on the scene today has the honeyed tone and ingratiating style to make comparisons to Pavarotti and Gigli seem serious, and it is Calleja, the man from Malta.” (New Yorker)
Blessed with a golden-age voice that routinely inspires comparisons to “legendary singers from earlier eras: Jussi Björling, Beniamino Gigli, even Enrico Caruso” (AP), Joseph Calleja is well-established as one of the most acclaimed and sought-after tenors today. His expansive discography and frequent appearances on the world’s leading opera and concert stages prompted NPR to hail him as “arguably today’s finest lyric tenor”.
In the 2024/25 season, Joseph Calleja returns to the Metropolitan Opera in one of his acclaimed signature roles, Rodolfo in Puccini’s La bohème, under the baton of Alexander Soddy. He reprises the role of Mario Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca at Dresden’s Semperoper with Marco Armiliato conducting. In Graz, Calleja performs the role of Alfredo Germont in Verdi’s La traviata. The tenor expands his international reach with in his first performances in China, starring in two concerts at the Shanghai Performing Arts Center, for his house debut at this prestigious venue. He is heard further in a concert version of Puccini’s Tosca, followed by the Puccini’s “Grand Gala”, both under the baton of Gianluca Marciano and featuring the Shanghai Opera Symphony Orchestra, with soprano Joyce El-Khoury and baritone Sir Bryn Terfel joining for the gala performance. The concert season concludes with his house debut at Musiikkitalo in Helsinki, where he performs in a program featuring Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio Italien, arias by Giuseppe Verdi, and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, under the baton of Aivis Greters.
Joseph Calleja commenced his 2023/24 season with a return to the USA, taking on the role of Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca at the Dallas Opera. At the Staatsoper Berlin, he sang his acclaimed signature role, Rodolfo in La bohème, and at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, he was heard as Pollione in Norma under Gianluca Capuano. On the concert stage, the 2023/24 season saw Calleja engage in exciting projects, including a concert at the Luis A. Ferré Performing Arts Center in San Juan alongside Ana María Martínez and Paulo Szot, accompanied by the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra. He gave a piano recital at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica, California and performed in concert under the auspices of the Dallas Opera. Joseph headlined at Festival del Sole’s Green Music Center in California, where he delighted the audience with beloved arias from Tosca. Calleja concluded the season with a notable appearance at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, where he performed alongside soprano Sonya Yoncheva and bass Ante Jerkunica under the baton of Ivan Repušić.
In the 2022/2023 season, Joseph Calleja saw performances as Cavaradossi in Tosca and Don José in Carmen at the Opéra National de Paris. He also enjoyed major touring success: he was heard in concert throughout Australia and New Zealand and toured Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. He performed with the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra at the Smetana Hall in Prague, with the Szczecin Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra in Poland, with the Würth Philharmonic Orchestra in Germany, and with l’Orchestra della Magna Grecia under Gianluca Marcianò in Italy.
Highlights from recent operatic seasons include the Duke in Rigoletto at the Paris Opera and at the Bavarian State Opera, Foresto in concert performances of Attila at the Royal Opera House London, Loris Ipanov in concert performances of Fedora at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the title characters in new productions of Faust and Les contes d’Hoffmann at the Metropolitan Opera; Alfredo in La traviata opposite Renée Fleming and Gabriele Adorno in Simon Boccanegra alongside Plácido Domingo; new productions of La bohème, opposite Anna Netrebko; La traviata at the Lyric Opera of Chicago; and Maria Stuarda alongside Joyce DiDonato in concerts with the Deutsche Oper Berlin. He made his role debut as Riccardo in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera at the Royal Opera House in London and portrayed Ruggero in Rolando Villazón’s staging of Puccini’s La rondine at Deutsche Oper Berlin.
Calleja appears extensively in concerts throughout the world. He was the featured soloist at the 2011 Nobel Prize Concert in Stockholm, was selected by the Maltese president to perform a private concert for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, and toured Germany with soprano Anna Netrebko. After co-headlining 2012’s Last Night of the BBC Proms, Calleja returned to the London festival in 2013 for a gala performance at the Royal Albert Hall and an open-air concert marking the Last Night of the Proms in Hyde Park. He stared in the renowned Open-Air Gala in front of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and sang at Moscow’s Zaryadye Concert Hall. Together with Diana Damrau, he performed a live concert at the Royal Palace of Caserta, Italy, as part of the Met Stars Live in Concert series. In 2022, invited as a special guest, the tenor performed alongside Anna Netrebko at the 175th Anniversary concert at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona.
As an exclusive Decca Classics recording artist since 2003, the tenor boasts an extensive discography that includes complete operas and concert repertoire, as well as eight solo albums. His most recent, and first-ever sacred album, entitled “Ave Maria”, was released in 2023. His videography enjoys similar success, and it was his portrayal of Alfredo in the Royal Opera House’s DVD/Blu-ray release of La traviata, alongside Renée Fleming and Thomas Hampson, which earned Calleja his first Grammy nomination. His rendition of the Verdi aria “La donna è mobile” is featured on the soundtrack of No Reservations, a 2007 motion picture starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart. He made his Hollywood debut in 2014’s The Immigrant, in which he portrays the legendary tenor Enrico Caruso in a cast with Marion Cotillard, Joaquin Phoenix, and Jeremy Renner.
Born in Malta in 1978, Joseph Calleja began singing at the age of 16, first in his church choir and then in formal training with Maltese tenor Paul Asciak. Calleja was only 19 when he made his operatic debut as Macduff in Verdi’s Macbeth at the Astra Theatre in Malta, shortly before winning an award in the Hans Gabor Belvedere Competition that launched his international career. He went on to win the 1998 Caruso Competition in Milan and was a prize winner in Plácido Domingo’s Operalia in 1999, the year of his U.S. debut at the Spoleto Festival. Since then, Calleja has gone on to appear with the world’s great opera companies.
One of his native land’s biggest celebrities, Calleja was selected to serve as Malta’s first cultural ambassador in 2012, and he was named a brand ambassador for Air Malta. In 2013 he teamed up with Malta’s Bank of Valletta to form the BOV Joseph Calleja Foundation, which serves children and families in need.
© CSAM, August 2024
