Calleja's 'The Maltese Tenor' debuts as vocal bestseller on German chart

On the new CD, 33-year-old Calleja sings some of the best Italian and French arias in his repertoire, including "E lucevan le stelle" from Tosca, the ballad of Kleinzach from The Tales of Hoffmann, and arias from La bohème, Simon Boccanegra, Faust, Manon, The Pearl Fishers and more. Many of these arias he has sung onstage at the Metropolitan Opera, performances that had the New York Times praising Calleja's "ardor, stamina and poignant vocal colorings."

The Maltese Tenor debuted in the number two position on the German chart, surpassed only by crossover star David Garrett's new release, Classic Romance. The North German broadcasting network NDR made the disc its album of the week, praising its "intelligence and taste" and the way Calleja's voice "flows freely and easily as it climbs the highest heights." To visit the album's microsite and to watch the EPK, go to http://www.deccaclassics.com/html/special/calleja-maltesetenor/.

The Maltese Tenor will have its US release this fall. But music lovers across America will have a chance to see and hear Calleja before then, when he stars in "Live from Jerusalem" on July 28. In the concert, which will be beamed (with a time delay) to 480 theaters across the U.S., he stars alongside Renée Fleming, as well as Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, in a program of arias and duets with the superstar soprano; the occasion will mark Calleja's first trip to Israel and his debut with the IPO.
Another highlight of the Maltese tenor's summer is his annual outdoor concert in Floriana on July 9. A gala concert follows soon after in the Bavarian city of Regensburg (July 20). On July 24, Calleja returns to the BBC Proms at London's Royal Albert Hall, as a soloist in Verdi's Requiem under Semyon Bychkov.

The concert will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, and on TV by BBC Four on August 21; celebrating this occasion, Decca Classics will release The Maltese Tenor in the UK the day after the Proms performance.

The Times of London, after his previous Verdi outing at the popular annual summer festival in 2008, wrote that "best of all...was the young Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja's unforced and open-throated ardour, soaring through the Hostias with real grace and, yes, true devotion."

The summer concerts in Malta and at the Proms both underscore Calleja's generous attitude towards his art: "I feel very strongly that opera is for the people. It's not for a select few."