Ponchielli: Cielo e mar! (from La Gioconda)

Blessed with “a golden-age voice” (The Sunday Times) that routinely inspires comparisons with legendary singers from earlier eras, Joseph Calleja will follow the success of The Maltese Tenor with a tribute to one of the most popular tenors of all time; the unique “crossover” star of the Hollywood musical – Mario Lanza.

This is an album that Joseph Calleja has always wanted to record. As a youth in Malta he saw Lanza in the cult film The Great Caruso and was so captivated that he gave up his predilection for Metallica and Iron Maiden and decided to become an opera singer

The ten sides the Italian tenor Enrico Caruso cut at the Grand Hotel, Milan, on 11 April 1902 are among the most historic of historical recordings.

As John Steane notes in a wide-ranging essay that ideally complements this collection, these are legendary recordings by a legendary tenor. Indeed, Caruso’s fame, according to the old HMV catalogue, was perhaps the greatest ever attained by a singer.

Steane sifts fact from fiction in the story of the producer Fred Gaisberg, wowed by Caruso at La Scala and determined to secure him for his company, agreeing the then huge fee of £100 for the ten arias and then receiving a cable from London that said ‘Fee exorbitant, forbid you to record’.

Whatever the truth of that, the recording went ahead. Caruso came to the Grand Hotel that Friday afternoon ‘dressed like a dandy, twirling a cane’ with his accompanist Salvatore Cottone, and all was completed within two hours in the improvised studio Gaisberg had rigged up.

Again, the new remastering by Abbey Road 78 expert Andrew Walter improves greatly on the recordings’ previous appearance on Références.

Awards: Diapason d’Or, Timbre de Platine d’Opéra International, FFFF de Télérama

Exuberant and charismatic, Rolando Villazón is the tenor of today. Here he releases his first solo album on Deutsche Grammophon. The soaring title track from Ponchielli’s La Gioconda inspired Villazón to become a singer. Here it is the starting point for an intriguing album which moves far beyond the usual “greatest tenor hits”. Less familiar masterpieces by Boito, Cilea and Verdi feature alongside little-known Donizetti arias and rarities by Gomes, Mercadante and Pietri. The album is Villazón’s personal homage to his illustrious predecessors in the lyric-dramatic repertoire – great tenors such as Bergonzi, Caruso and Domingo. Cielo e mar offers something special for connoisseurs of opera, Villazón’s many fans and mainstream listeners who will be gripped by the beauty of both his voice and the music.

Blessed with “a golden-age voice” (The Sunday Times) that routinely inspires comparisons with legendary singers from earlier eras, Joseph Calleja will follow the success of The Maltese Tenor with a tribute to one of the most popular tenors of all time; the unique “crossover” star of the Hollywood musical – Mario Lanza.

This is an album that Joseph Calleja has always wanted to record. As a youth in Malta he saw Lanza in the cult film The Great Caruso and was so captivated that he gave up his predilection for Metallica and Iron Maiden and decided to become an opera-singer.

The Italian Salvatore Licitra, who tragically died on September 5th 2011 after a motorbike accident, was one of the leading tenors of his generation in the highly sought-after dramatic Italian repertoire. A frequent guest at major opera and concert stages in Europe, the United States and the Far East, he was particularly devoted to Verdi repertoire.

As a tribute to this exceptionally gifted artist we are releasing a selection of his best arias and songs taken from operas from the dramatic Italian oeuvre. Operas by Giuseppi Verdi and Giacomo Puccini feature heavily in the track-listing with each disc opening with a show-stopping famous tenor aria; Nessun Dorma and Celeste Aida respectively.

The 2-CD set ends with five previously unreleased tracks - all well-loved Italian songs recorded with Marco Armiliato and The Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.