Tenor Joseph Calleja causing a stir in Houston Grand Opera debut

With 28 lead roles at opera houses around the world, including recent triumphs like a debut in Tales of Hoffman at the Met and hisAdorno at the Royal Opera House (Covent Garden) this summer.

He has also released two acclaimed solo CDs - both Gramophone Magazine Editors' Choice winners, with a third disc set for release next year.

Having started off young is not an understatement for the rising star. "My family has videos of me singing when I was 3 or 4," he said. "Anything I heard I would sing. I was in church choirs and sang in rock bands as a teen."

But his epiphany came when watching a video of The Great Caruso (starring Mario Lanza). "It was nothing short of life-changing,"Calleja recalled. "The first sounds he (Lanza) emits in the movie are just la-la vocalizing to loosen his throat. But the minute I heard it, I thought, 'I want to do that’.”

Through his piano teacher, Calleja met Paul Asciak, a Maltese tenor - a voice teacher and Malta's foremost opera expert at the time. "At the first note I sang for him,” Calleja recalls, “he had this startled reaction and adjusted his spectacles. I knew there were two options: I was either very bad or very good." Asciak felt Calleja was a "world-class talent," but raw and in need of training.

Apprehensive, he dropped his other studies and began working with Asciak for five to six hours each day, covering singing, music history, performances by the great tenors, and breathing exercises. “The conundrum is,” Calleja said, “the more natural a voice, the more difficult it can be to train it properly. Sometimes you have to go against what feels natural to sing correctly."

But the training paid off. At age 19, in 1997, Calleja was one of seven winners – the youngest ever - in Vienna's Belvedere HansGabor competition. Only a year later, he won the Caruso Competition in Milan, Italy. He cites the importance in those victories as the confirmation of Asciak's faith that he indeed had "what it takes.”

Calleja adopts a very prudent approach: "I like to err on the side of caution. To me, my voice is not just a means to go around the world and make money. It's a gift, like sight or hearing. If I were to lose or damage it, through my own fault, I would be - pardon the language - very pissed off."

Speaking of his homeland, he said how "people in Malta follow what I do and are proud of me," he says. "I love that feeling, but it's a big responsibility. If I look good, my country looks good - but if I look bad, my country looks bad. I like to use that popularity to promote classical music. With the help of a friend, I've started a 500-strong children's choir in Malta."

Yet Calleja says he’s found a home-away-from-home in Houston: "The weather and the people remind me so much of my own country, that I've forgotten somewhat and let myself relax a little. It's been so much fun because I love working with Ana Maria Martinez (in the title role) and the whole cast has really bonded."