Joseph Calleja áriakoncertje / BTF 2019

Verdi: I vespri siciliani – overture

Verdi: Rigoletto – Questa o quella (The Duke’s aria)

Verdi: Macbeth – Ah, la paterna mano (Macduff’s aria)

Verdi: Attila –prelude

Puccini: Tosca – Recondita armonia (Cavaradossi’s aria)

Massenet: Werther – Pourquoi me réveiller? (Werther’s aria)

Puccini: Manon Lescaut – intermezzo

Puccini: Tosca – E lucevan le stelle (Cavaradossi’s aria)

Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana – intermezzo

Tchaikovsky: Six romances, Op. 6 – No. 6: None but the Lonely Heart

Tosti: Ideale

Tosti: ’A vucchella

Puccini: Le Villi – La tregenda

Vella: Il-Kebbies tal-Fanali

Donaudy: Vaghissima sembianza

Leoncavallo: Pagliacci – intermezzo

Leoncavallo: Mattinata

Featuring: Hungarian State Opera Orchestra

Conductor: Pier Giorgio Morandi

Maltese star tenor Joseph Calleja has been one of the most sought-after opera singers of the new century. He has released several solo records, and the DVD of Covent Garden’s production of La traviata, in which he sang Alfredo as Renée Fleming’s partner, was nominated for a Grammy Award. His regular partners on the stage include Anna Netrebko, Plácido Domingo, Elīna Garanča, Thomas Hampson, and Angela Gheorghiu. His most recent album, in which he sings Verdi arias, was released in February 2018.

He feels particularly at home in the Italian Romantic repertoire, and is often considered an heir of Pavarotti, or even of Jussi Björling, Beniamino Gigli, or Enrico Caruso. This season saw him in a new role, that of Rodolfo in Verdi’s Luisa Miller. He also sings a major role long on his repertoire, Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca, now in a production of the New York Metropolitan Opera, which will also tour the Aix-en-Provence Festival. The conductor of Calleja’s Budapest aria concert will be Pier Giorgio Morandi, globe-trotting specialist of Romantic Italian operas.