There are some opera singers who, when they come to town, are always worth hearing. Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja is establishing himself in that category at just 34. This Festival Hall recital, with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Andrew Greenwood in support, showed strengths and weaknesses. The chief virtue is the voice itself: a firm, even and true tenor with that heroic Italianate ingredient that draws comparisons with Pavarotti. The darker chest voice he currently lacks may come with greater age, as it did with Placido Domingo, but Calleja knows he stands in a tradition which has faltered, and exudes confidence in providing what so many tenors struggle or only pretend to give.
Market forces, and perhaps personal temperament, placed Puccini and the verismo school at the centre of this recital of tenor favourites. The two arias from Tosca flowed with great naturalness, and he brought the house down with sterling renditions of well-known pieces from Cavalleria Rusticana and Fedora. But it was his authoritative opening to the act-one duet from La Bohème, with Indra Thomas singing Mimi, that showed how Calleja can be a singer for the ages.
In The Flower Song from Carmen, though, the words were rather skimmed over, and it's a pity also that Calleja did not delve more interestingly into Verdi – as Thomas, with much less talent at her disposal, did in two solo contributions – than the familiar tenor numbers from Rigoletto and La Traviata. Three ringingly executed songs from Calleja's recent Mario Lanza tribute album rounded things off. A special voice, but the evening could have done with more artistic ambition.
