Tenor Joseph Calleja

ENERGETIC SINGING IN CALLEJA/SANIKIDZE WEILL RECITAL

The Festival del Sole welcomed and audience of 250 August 3 to hear tenor Joseph Calleja sing in Weill Hall at the Green Music Center. The audience was energetic, evident at Mr. Calleja's entrance, and that energy continued through the encores.

The recital was short, fifty minutes in length, and consisted of three vocal sets with a solo piano piece after the first two sets and concluded with four encores. A majority of the recital was in the baritone range with a few higher passages in the arias. Mr. Calleja sang several selections in keys lower than the traditional keys for tenor, such as Tosti's Ideale and Maria from Westside Story.

Set one included Ah! Tout est bien fini! From Massenet's Le Cid, Ombra mai fu from Handel's Xerxes, and Stefano Donaudy's "Vaghissima sembianza." Mr. Calleja's voice seemed overly dark and rather hollow in his opening aria, that aria has several slow and dramatic climbs from the lower voice into the high voice. The upper voice was void of almost any squillo or ring. These passages seemed heavy and tricky for the singer. There were a few audible moments of disruption on the vocal folds, primarily likely from phlegm. Several phrases ended with glottal releases. Ombra mai fu used many more vocal colors than the opening aria, and Mr. Calleja showed off his masterful breath control with many lovely crescendos and decrescendos. Several times the middle-upper range got slightly throaty and too strident for the piece. The “Vaghissima sembianza” work was the best, having more momentum than the first two pieces, and Mr. Calleja used a lighter and higher placement. There was a fine balance between the chiaroscuro in his voice, and I had a desire for more of the recital to be sung in this way.

Following the first set, pianist Nino Sanikidze performed Chopin's Op. 36 Impromptu, and she dedicated the performance to her recently deceased mother and noted her mother's profound musical influence. The playing contained clean, pointed, choral-like and haunting fluid sections.

The second set started with the timeless aria E lucevan le stelle from Puccini's Tosca, followed by three songs: Tosti's Ideale, Tchaikovsky's None But The Lonely Heart, and Rota's Parla piu Piano. E lucevan le stelle revealed the stage presence for which Calleja is known. The emotion was palpable. His use of sotto voces was skillful and enchanting. However, there were several moments in which Mr. Calleja sped through, making the aria seem slightly rushed. Tosti's Ideal was full of beautiful tone coloring, and phrasing. Calleja chose to end the piece by singing down the octave on the final phrase. The set's last song, Parla piu Piano is better known as the "Love Theme" from The Godfather. Not often heard in recitals, it was a lovely addition.

The second solo piano piece showcased excerpts from Schumann's Kinderszenen: Movement No. 7 Träumerei (Dreaming) is one of Schumann's best-known pieces, and is the opening and closing musical theme of the 1947 Hollywood film Song of Love. Movement No. 12 was Kind im Einschlummern (Child Falling Asleep).
The closing set consisted of the musical theater selections Edelweiss from The Sound of Music and Maria from Westside Story, ending with Leoncavallo's Mattinata. Mr. Calleja stayed in his lower range for most of this set and sometimes sounded like a true baritone. The upper range lacked presence, and the pieces seemed to rush through. Mattinata was an excellent choice for the closing selection but lost some of its excitement in the dark, throaty sound.

Mr. Calleja offered four encores to a very appreciative audience. Rodrigo's En Aranjuez con tu Amor, was the most heartfelt singing of the recital. If I Were a Rich Man from Fiddler on the Roof featured humorous acting and effortless singing. The tenor. then surprised the audience by leaping off the stage and singing Le Vie en Rose from the audience and directly to several audience members. Once again, he performed this song at a lower key than is accustomed to higher voices. The recital ended with a Granada, which was relatively fast and had several missed lyrics.

There is no question that Mr. Calleja is a skilled and artistic singer. He used many expressive colors and showed masterful control of the voice. However, this recital could have been more impressive due to the selected repertoire's tessitura and dark and heavy singing, which lacked ring throughout the performance.