Tenor Calleja misses out on Grammy

Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja missed out on a Grammy, earning himself the honourable nomination in the American music industry's most prized awards  

While the reaction to Whitney Houston's death dominated the headlines over the weekend, the 54th Grammy Awards nevertheless forged ahead with the announcement Sunday afternoon of the winners in the seven classical music categories.

At news of her death, Calleja tweeted his condolences: "What a waste of talent and youth. Condolences to her close ones and goodbye to such a great artist."

Calleja was nominated for Best Opera Recording with Verdi's La Traviata, accompanied by the orchestra and chorus of the Royal Opera Hourse.

The award was won by Sasha Cooke for Adams's Doctor Atomic, performed by the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus, with Richard Paul Fink and Gerald Finley.

Calleja's role as Alfredo in Verdi's La Traviata has earned the tenor many plaudits, redolent as he is of the classic mould of Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo.

Singer Adele took home six Grammys, including the Big Three: song and record of the year for "Rolling in the Deep," and album of the year for "21." Earlier in the night, she thanked "the doctors who brought my voice back."

She described her winning album "21" as being about something "everyone's been through ... which is a rubbish relationship," and that universality translated to the year's biggest-selling and now most-acclaimed recording.

Whitney Houston's death in a Los Angeles hotel room Saturday put the Grammys into scramble mode, as they altered the telecast schedule and devised an appropriate tribute to the pop icon. "We've had a death in our family," host LL Cool J said. He offered "a prayer for a woman we loved, for a fallen sister."