Dubai, UAE
Internationally acclaimed for his vocal brilliance, elegant style, persuasive acting and impeccable taste, Joseph Calleja has become one of Malta’s most important musical ambassadors. For this spectacular gala concert, the renowned Maltese tenor and famed Metropolitan Opera star will perform some of the most hauntingly beautiful arias in the French and Italian repertoire, including the extremely demanding ‘Ah! Lève-toi soleil!’ from Charles Gounod’s ‘Roméo et Juliette’, and the tender ‘La fleur que tu m’avais jetée’ from Georges Bizet’s ‘Carmen’.
Giuseppe Verdi’s aria ‘Quando le sere al placido’ from the opera ‘Luisa Miller’ is among the biggest tenor hits of all time, with ‘Amor ti vieta’, taken from Umberto Giordano’s ‘Fedora’ famous amongst opera lovers, having been sung by all the great tenors, even though the opera itself is rarely performed outside Italy.
With influences ranging from opera, jazz, symphonic and Latin American music, Leonard Bernstein’s operatic ‘West Side Story’ is a highly eclectic musical. The famous aria ‘Maria’ ingeniously uses the tritone — an interval that was banned from music for centuries — at the very beginning of the aria to characterise Tony’s longing for Maria.
With the hugely popular ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ from ‘Carousel’, and ‘Edelweiss’ from ‘The Sound of Music’, both written by Richard Rodgers, Calleja shows his talent for works outside of the operatic canon, with Sergey Smbatyan combining these iconic songs with the hauntingly beautiful ‘Intermezzo’ from Giacomo Puccini’s ‘Manon Lescaut’, and the charming orchestral piece ‘Charmaine’, that Ernö Rapée composed for the silent war-drama, ‘What Price Glory?’.
In addition to the appearance of Joseph Calleja, this performance will also feature Charles Camilleri’s Overture and Celebration from The Knights of Malta Ballet Suite, in a further celebration of the unique contributions to classical music by Maltese artists.w
Orch. Mantovani/Belli
Orch. Mantovani/Belli
Orch. Bateman
Sergey Smbatyan is the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra and the Principal Conductor of the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra. An avid popularizer of classical music, the conductor has an extensive international engagement, and is committed to rejuvenating the classical music audiences and the promotion of contemporary classical music globally.
Born into a family of musicians, Sergey Smbatyan took his first steps in the world of classical music under the guidance of her grandmother Tatyana Hayrapetyan, a distinguished violin teacher, followed by his education at Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan and Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory.
Subsequently, in 2012, he furthered his academic journey at the Royal Academy of Music, studying under Sir Colin Davis. His studies under the guidance of Riccardo Muti and Valery Gergiev significantly influenced and enhanced his proficiency in conducting.
Sergey Smbatyan's conducting career was highlighted by his debut performance with the London Symphony Orchestra at Windsor Castle, under the auspices of Prince Charles, now HRH Charles III. The impressive success of this concert led to a subsequent invitation, where he conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra at Buckingham Palace.
Sergey Smbatyan's extensive international involvement as a conductor and his distinctive appreciation for contemporary classical music has led to a wide array of collaborations with globally acclaimed composers, such as Krzysztof Penderecki, Tigran Mansuryan, Arvo Pärt, Gia Kancheli, and many others. Among such notable endeavors were the large-scale projects conducted with John Malkovich in several countries of Latin America and Asia. Led by Sergey Smbatyan and accompanied by the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, the iconic Hollywood artist delivered a unique musical performance in Yerevan, presenting a reading of excerpts from “The Book of Lamentations” by the medieval Armenian poet Grigor Narekatsi.
The conductor serves as the artistic director of a number of annual music festivals, as well as the Khachaturian International Competition, to which the category of conducting was introduced through Sergey Smbatyan's initiative. Among the festivals founded by Sergey Smbatyan are the Khachaturian International Festival, which aims to uphold the legacy of Aram Khachaturian and other famous Armenian composers, the "Armenia" International Music Festival, which hosts world-renowned virtuoso musicians to perform in Armenia, the Penderecki Contemporary Music Festival, which showcases the works of contemporary legendary composers, and others.
Sergey Smbatyan is the founder of the "Music for Future Foundation (M4FF)”, which is committed to discovering young talented musicians and fostering their career advancement.
He strives to champion innovative approaches in the classical music industry, consistently seeking creative ideas and solutions in implementing various projects. During the opening ceremony of "WCIT 2019," the largest IT Congress for innovators and entrepreneurs, hosted in Armenia, an international orchestra performed an AI real-time-composed musical piece under the direction of Sergey Smbatyan.
Sergey Smbatyan releases recordings with the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra on their own "ArmSymphony Records" label and is actively involved in recording contemporary classical music with the London Symphony Orchestra and other orchestras. His recent engagements include the album of spiritual music "Ave Maria" recorded with the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra and the world-renowned tenor Joseph Calleja, released under the "DECCA Records" label, the album “Aznavouriana” by Deutsche Grammophon with the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra and cellist Camille Thomas in commemoration of French-Armenian singer and composer Charles Aznavour’s 100th anniversary.
In recent concert seasons, Sergey Smbatyan has served as a guest conductor with leading orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Mariinsky Theater Symphony Orchestra, the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, and many others.
As the conductor of the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, Sergey Smbatyan embarked on numerous concert tours and performed at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York, the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, the Munich’s Gasteig , Vienna’s Musikverein, the Berliner Philharmonie, and other renowned concert halls.
In 2023, he led the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra on a grand UK tour, dedicated to Aram Khachaturian’s 120th anniversary and in 2024 on the orchestra’s debut tour in the United States with the performances at Boston’s Symphony Hall, New York City’s Carnegie Hall, and Los Angeles Music Center’s Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Highlights of 2024/25 season include concerts with the Madrid Philharmonic Orchestra, the Ontario Philharmonic Orchestra, the Krakow Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra as well as performances at Salle Gaveau and the Cité de la Musique of the Paris Philharmonie with the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra featuring French and Armenian composers.
Up until the 2024/25 season, Sergey Smbatyan will be Principal Guest Conductor of Berlin Symphony.
Sergey Smbatyan holds the title of Honoured Artist of the Republic of Armenia and the title of “Chevalier of Arts and Letters” of France.
Sergey Smbatyan was appointed as a UNICEF National Ambassador in 2023.
“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, who … is now maturing into an artist of the first rank.”
– 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” (Associated Press), Maltese-born Joseph Calleja has quickly become 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,” and led to his being voted Gramophone magazine’s 2012 Artist of the Year. A Grammy-nominated recording artist for Decca Classics, he has released five solo albums for the label.
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.
Starting the 20-21 season Joseph Calleja returns to the Deutsche Oper Berlin as Enzo Grimaldo in performances of La Gioconda. He stars in the Metropolitan Opera’s new series of Met Stars Live in Concert together with Diana Damrau, performing at the at the Royal Palace of Caserta, Italy. The program features popular arias and duets by Verdi, Bizet, Rossini. Joseph Calleja ends the season at the Teatro Real Madrid with his signature role of Mario Cavaradossi in performances of Tosca.
A sought-after concert soloist, Joseph Calleja can be heard on the best stages worldwide with his very broad repertoire. Opera Naples’ Festival under the Stars takes the tenor to Florida before he presents his well-loved Lanza programme with the WDR Radio Orchestra at the Konzerthaus Dortmund. Further, he stars in the renowned Open-Air Gala in from of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. Joseph Calleja will end the season with a concert dedicated to Piazzolla and Caruso at the Festival della Valle d'Itria in Martina Franca, Italy.
Highlights of the 19-20 season include a return to the Chicago Lyric Opera as Rodolfo in Verdi’s Luisa Miller and to the Vienna State Opera for performances of Tosca with Bryn Terfel and Evgenia Muraveva. Calleja gave his house debut at the Semperoper Dresden in performances of La bohème before singing Tosca at the Munich State Opera.
On the concert stage, Joseph Calleja had solo concerts at the renowned festival in Peralada, Spain, followed opera galas in Puerto Rico and at the Baden-Baden festival hall. He gave his debut in Moscow’s new Zaryadye Concert Hall and sang in Prague’s Smetana Hall. In Dublin, he joined the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and Claudia Boyle for a gala concert, and in
Valencia with the Orquésta de Valencia. He gave gala performances in Singapore, as well as at the London Palladium.
Joseph Calleja's 2018-19 season was highlighted by his role debut as Rodolfo in Verdi’s Luisa Miller at the Hamburg State Opera. He sang one of his signature roles, Mario Caravadossi (Tosca), at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and at the renowned Festival in Aix-en-Provence. Further, he starred as Pollione (Norma) and Don José (Carmen) at the Bavarian State Opera, as Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor) and Don José at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, as well as Duca (Rigoletto) at the Vienna State Opera. Likewise, at the Vienna State Opera, Calleja had his recital debut on the grand stage, followed by his recital debut at the Naples Opera in Florida.
Highlights from recent operatic seasons include the title characters in new productions of Faust and Les Contes d’Hoffmann at the Metropolitan Opera; Alfredo in La traviata opposite Renée Fleming, Adorno in Simone Boccanegra alongside Plácido Domingo, and another turn in the title role of Faust at Covent Garden; new productions of La bohème, opposite Anna Netrebko, and La traviata at the Lyric Opera of Chicago; Maria Stuarda alongside Joyce DiDonato in concerts with the Deutsche Oper Berlin; and a new staging of Rigoletto at the Bavarian State Opera. He made his role debut as Riccardo in a new treatment of Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, as Don José in Carmen at Oper Frankfurt in a staging of Barrie Kosky, as Cavaradossi in Tosca at Grange Park Opera 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, singing with leading orchestras at summer festivals, including Salzburg, and in outdoor concerts in front of tens of thousands of people in Malta, Paris, and Munich. 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. As a recitalist, he has performed in Japan and throughout Europe.
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 five solo albums: The Golden Voice, Tenor Arias, The Maltese Tenor, Be My Love: A Tribute to Mario Lanza, and Amore. 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, in which he co-stars with Renée Fleming and Thomas Hampson, that 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.
Calleja’s VERDI album was released by Decca Classics in February 2018 and features a lovely selection of dramatic tenor repertoire by Verdi, including arias from Aida, Don Carlo, La forza del destino and Otello, to name but a few. It was highly acclaimed by the press:
“Joseph Calleja with his ‘Verdi’ album is in outstanding form aptly displaying his progress as one of the finest tenors on the stage today.” (musicweb-international)
“Any doubts about the most winning lyric “Italian” tenor since Pavarotti tackling this heavy Verdi repertoire are largely dispelled by the vitality of his sunny sound and the clarity of his diction.” (The Sunday Times)
“Stylistically and temperamentally, he seems completely at home in this repertoire, never afraid to add faintly old-school expressive effects, though nothing ever seems contrived or histrionic.” (PRESTO Classical)
Calleja has been profiled in New York’s Wall Street Journal and London’s Times, among other newspapers, and has graced covers of magazines such as Opera News. An increasingly frequent face on television, he has appeared on such programs as CNN’s Business Traveller, BBC Breakfast, and the Andrew Marr Show, and been featured in numerous internationally televised concerts. In 2013, he made his U.S. network television debut performing in a Kennedy Center Honors tribute to preeminent American soprano Martina Arroyo on CBS.
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. 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. Calleja recently teamed up with Malta’s Bank of Valletta to form the BOV Joseph Calleja Foundation, which will serve to help children and families in need. Calleja is the recipient of the 2014 International Opera Awards’ Readers’ Award.
For half a century, the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) has been recognised as Malta’s foremost musical institution.
The orchestra was founded in April 1968, when musicians from the defunct “Commander-in-Chief” (C-in-C) orchestra of the Malta-based British Mediterranean Fleet regrouped as the Manoel Theatre Orchestra. It continued to serve as the theatre’s resident orchestra until September 1997, when it became an independent orchestra, taking up the name National Orchestra of Malta. The orchestra became the MPO in 2008 when it expanded into a full-size symphony orchestra, bringing together the best of Maltese talent and musicians from Europe and beyond.
Joseph Sammut, the C-in-C’s last conductor, was the orchestra’s first conductor, remaining at the helm until 1992. Since then, the orchestra has also been under the direction of Joseph Vella, John Galea, Michael Laus, and Brian Schembri. In 2019, the MPO has appointed Sergey Smbatyan as Principal Conductor, joining Resident Conductor Michael Laus as part of the orchestra’s Artistic Team. The MPO also works with local and international guest conductors and soloists including Lawrence Renes, Michalis Economou, Guy Braunstein, Alexei Volodin, Camilla Tilling, Joseph Calleja, and Enrico Dindo.
As Malta’s leading musical ensemble, the MPO averages more than one performance a week including symphonic concerts, opera productions in Malta and Gozo, community outreach and educational initiatives, as well as various concerts of a lighter nature.
The orchestra has performed in leading venues across the globe, including in the United States, Russia, Germany, Austria, China, Italy, and Belgium, and presently embarks on at least one international tour each concert season.
The MPO is a keen exponent of Maltese composers, regularly performing their works in Malta and overseas, as well as frequently premiering and commissioning new compositions.
Through the MPO Academy and the Malta Youth Orchestra, which regularly give concerts across Malta, the MPO is also responsible for the training and professional development of the next generation of Maltese musicians.
