Joseph Calleja’s voluminous voice reverberated across the Manoel Theatre’s courtyard yesterday as he performed for the promotional video of his new album, The Maltese Tenor.

Actors sat at the tables drinking wine and listening in awe while he sang E Lucevan le Stelle from Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca, while his two children Clara and Xandru looked on excitedly from a table in the corner.

“People comment that they can hear the sun in my voice, the Mediterranean, and the sea... so what better place to film it and present this album than Malta?” Mr Calleja said.

The Maltese Tenor will be his third album with the prestigious British classical record label Decca.

Recorded in August with Marco Armiliato in the Orchestra de la Suisse Romande in Geneva, it features a mix of Italian and French opera, including Che Gelida Manina from Puccini’s La Bohéme and Salut demeure from Charles Gounod’s Faust.

“The result is really beautiful and I’m really excited about the mixture of the Italian and French repertoire. I lobbied hard to do this promotional video in Malta because they wanted to do it in New York,” he said.

“But I told them that since the album would probably be called The Maltese Tenor then we should film it in Malta, and they agreed,” he said, thanking the Malta Tourism Authority and Anton Attard, from NnG Promotions, for the logistical support.

The filming for the three-minute clip, which will be screened globally, will include shots in prime cultural locations such as St John’s Co-Cathedral, Ġgantija and the Azure Window. It will be screened alongside the album’s release in May.

As Mr Calleja performed for the people in the courtyard, journalists were asked to stand around in the arches and look like interested onlookers. Although the extras were actors, it was evident the looks on their faces were not put on, especially when the clapping got louder and louder every time Mr Calleja concluded his song and the cameras were switched off.