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”.
“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”.
The 2023/24 season brings a return to the US to sing an acclaimed signature role, Rodolfo in La bohème, at the Metropolitan Opera under the baton of Marco Armiliato. He reprises this role at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, where he further sings Pollione in Norma under Gianluca Capuano. He is Cavaradossi in Tosca for the Dallas Opera, and in Berlin the tenor stars as Enzo Grimaldi in La Gioconda at the Deutsche Oper and reprises Cavaradossi at the Staatsoper. On the concert stage, the 2023/24, Calleja’s exciting projects include 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 gives a piano recital at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica, California and performs in concert under the auspices of the Dallas Opera.
Last 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; he also 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 the Amsterdam 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 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 concert 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.
