Joseph Calleja is “Live from Jerusalem” in U.S. theaters July 28
Music lovers across America from Albuquerque to Zanesville can see and hear Joseph Calleja on Thursday, July 28, when he stars in “Live from Jerusalem”: a special one-night event to be beamed (with a time delay) to 480 U.S. theaters. The concert will present the Maltese tenor in a program of opera arias and duets, featuring renowned soprano Renée Fleming and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta. For this special occasion (honoring the legacy of the great American tenor Richard Tucker), the two celebrated singers will perform excerpts from Verdi’s Rigoletto and La traviata, Puccini’s Tosca and Madama Butterfly, Gounod’s Faust, and Massenet’s Cléopâtre. When Calleja teamed up with Fleming for a recent Covent Garden production of La traviata, the Sunday Times observed: “Fleming gets luxury support from Joseph Calleja’s elegantly phrased Alfredo… . Not to be missed if you can get a ticket.” The “Live from Jerusalem” concert marks Calleja’s first trip to Israel and his debut with the Philharmonic. It also crowns a banner week: the tenor returns to London’s BBC Proms on Sunday, July 24, as a soloist in Verdi’s Requiem with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Semyon Bychkov; the following day sees the UK release of The Maltese Tenor, his solo album that debuted at number two on the German classical charts.
Calleja’s July 24 appearance at London’s Royal Albert Hall will be broadcast live on BBC Radio Three, and then on television – BBC Four – on August 21. The tenor’s return to the BBC Proms follows a successful Verdi outing last year in Simon Boccanegra; on that occasion, as both the Guardian and the Sunday Times reported, Calleja “brought the house down”; indeed, according to Opera Today, he “almost stole the show.”
To celebrate the upcoming Prom, Decca Classics has announced the UK release of The Maltese Tenor for the following day, Monday, July 25. In a recent four-star review that was published in London’s Times, noted music critic Hugh Canning wrote:
“Now 33, Calleja sounds at his vocal peak on this, his third album of opera arias and two duets… his is a bright, warm, unmistakably Mediterranean timbre, with a distinctive quick vibrato that recalls great tenors of the wind-up-gramophone era… His ‘Che gelida manina’ is surely the most glamorous and thrilling on disc since Pavarotti’s famous complete recording… In short, a golden-age voice in its prime.”
The new album was an instant bestseller in Germany when it was released in May, debuting on the classical charts as the top vocal recording. 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.” The Maltese Tenor will be released in the U.S. later this year. In the meantime, to visit the album’s microsite and watch the EPK, go to www.deccaclassics.com/html/special/calleja-maltesetenor.
Joseph Calleja: upcoming engagements
July 24
London, England
BBC Proms: Royal Albert Hall
Verdi: Requiem
Marina Poplavskaya, soprano; Mariana Pentcheva, mezzo-soprano; Ferruccio Furlanetto, bass
BBC Symphony Chorus; BBC National Chorus of Wales; London Philharmonic Choir
BBC Symphony Orchestra / Semyon Bychkov
July 25
UK release of The Maltese Tenor
July 28
Jerusalem, Israel
ICC International Convention Center
“Live from Jerusalem”* – opera arias and duets
Renée Fleming
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra / Zubin Mehta
*time-delayed broadcast by NCM Fathom to theaters in the US at 7pm local time; for a list of participating theaters, visit the NCM Fathom web site:
http://www.fathomevents.com/performingarts/event/reneefleming.aspx?utm_source=Renee_Fleming_Press_Release&utm_medium=PR&utm_campaign=Renee_Fleming_Fathom_Event_Page
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