Wine influenced my early career, Joseph Calleja tells BBC

Speaking on BBC programme Front Row to promote his latest album, The Maltese Tenor, Calleja recounted how he was seduced into opera during his early teens.

“I was at my uncle’s house one day – I must have been around 13 or 14 – and he had put on the movie The Great Caruso… I was in a rock band at the time, but seeing that film I remember thinking ‘this must be the most beautiful sound a human voice can produce’… I was hooked from then on.”

The 1951 Mario Lanza-starring film – loosely based on the life of tenor Enrico Caruso – also showed the Neapolitan tenor quaffing wine to aid his voice… a fact the young Calleja took quite literally as a singing tip.

“It was actually quite funny… at that age I remember immediately thinking ‘good wine = good singing voice! So after I joined a choir I would take wine with me in little plastic bottles of mineral water, and the chorus would just go ‘what is this 14-year-old doing sipping wine? And I would go ‘haven’t you watched The Great Caruso?!’ – that’s exactly what I need to do!

“If this were happening now I’m sure my parents would have been arrested or something!” Calleja said.

During the interview, Calleja also spoke about his latest album, whose title doesn’t shy away from a patriotic label that most singers would shun, according to Lawson.

“I’ve been referred to as The Maltese Tenor in the past… and why not? It’s factual and it represents what my voice, my background, my family is all about…”

Calleja also mentioned that he’s “fully booked up” for the next five years, and knows exactly which projects he will be undertaking.

“I wouldn’t change my repertoire based on how old I am,” Calleja said.

Listen to the full interview here.