'Calleja and Friends' set to become regular event

The concept of having tenor Joseph Calleja perform alongside local and international artistes went down so well that the organisers are planning to make this a regular on the cultural calendar.

"This was a first for Joseph and for us and we feel it was a recipe that worked," Anton Attard, from NnG Promotions, said.

Officially promoted as the Joseph Calleja and Michael Bolton concert, people have dubbed it as Calleja and Friends because it reminded them of similar concerts by Luciano Pavarotti who used to invite famous singers to perform alongside him.

Sunday's concert was deemed a success by many of the 7,000 people who gathered at the Luxol Grounds to listen to a medley of ballads, operatic arias and pop songs.

The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra's musicians, under the baton of Paul Bateman, struck the right notes as they shifted from Michael Bolton's soft pop crooning to Joseph Calleja's powerful voice during the two-hour concert.

One of the highlights was when the two stars came together to sing Puccini's Nessun Dorma and got a standing ovation not long after Michael Bolton sang the aria solo.

However, for the singer the piece was close to his heart after performing the piece with Luciano Pavarotti - "he will remain the greatest tenor of all time" - during one of the live Pavarotti and Friends concert, which he described as "a life-changing experience".

The interpretation by Joseph Calleja and Chiara of The Prayer, a duet by Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli, also received a standing ovation from the appreciative crowd.

Another memorable piece was seeing the tenor and Ivan Grech, Winter Moods' frontman perform Miserere together, a rendition made famous by Pavarotti and Zucchero.

The two also interpreted Winter Moods' popular single Marigold and it was refreshing to see Joseph Calleja singing a different genre.

Joseph Calleja, Ivan Grech and soprano Gillian Zammit came together to interpret All for Love, backed by a choir of some 270 children, who applauded and shrieked in delight at every opportunity. Joseph Calleja joked the children were brought in as back-up just in case the crowd did not cheer them on.

The orchestra also played Nocturne, one of Charles Camilleri's symphonies, as a tribute to the gifted maestro who passed away six months ago.

Joseph Calleja also sang a beautiful rendition of the Ave Maria, in an impromptu thank you to the heavens for keeping tenor Paul Asciak, his mentor and the man who discovered his talent as a young boy, on earth after a health scare last Christmas.

The only disappointment was the lack of a proper encore - Joseph Calleja and Michael Bolton merely sang the refrain of Nessun Dorma - that the crowd was really hungry for.

See new video highlights at:

http://www.timesofmalta.com/life/view/20090721/reviews/more-video-highlights-from-bolton-calleja-concert