American legend Mario Lanza long nurtured Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja’s passion for opera, and as a 13-year-old keen to replicate that “beautiful sound”, he had lost his voice for three weeks.

Forever impatient to move on to the next step, Calleja was reined in by his teacher, former tenor Paul Asciak, who patiently guided him slowly towards becoming one of the greats himself.

In a 10-minute interview during BBC One Breakfast yesterday morning, Calleja spoke about his album of covers of songs by his hero Lanza, Be My Love – A Tribute To Mario Lanza, and Saturday’s appearance at the Last Night of the Proms at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

Describing Lanza as a man who married personality and voice, Calleja treated BBC One viewers to a live rendition of his Be My Love in the studio.

The Maltese tenor laughed as he recalled how he had become fixated with Lanza’s habit of swigging wine in the film The Great Caruso to aid his voice before going on stage.

For a while Calleja equated good wine with a good voice, so as a 14-year-old he would sneak wine in a plastic water bottle on stage.

With Olympic fever still running high in London, Calleja was asked about sports and he recalled his days as a basketball player at De La Salle College, conceding, however, that he was better at singing.

Music, like sports, was a serious discipline, he said, which focused on keeping healthy to sustain a three-hour marathon on stage.

Speaking about Saturday’s BBC Proms, Calleja said he was “excited and extremely honoured” to sing during the “most famous classical event in the world ”.

This is the fourth year running that Calleja will be taking part in the BBC Proms, but it is the first time he has been invited to sing on the highly prestigious Last Night.

This year he will be joining conductor Jiri Belohlávek and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

The Last Night of the Proms is usually the preserve of British artistes, and Calleja is one of the few foreign guests to have been invited.

The show is famous for artiste’s sartorial choices and is not the first time that soloists have decked themselves out in British patriotic colours, although Calleja would reveal nothing about his costume.

All he would say was: “I promise I won’t walk on with a Maltese falcon or a Maltese dog.”

The BBC Proms will be featured live on TVM on Saturday at 8.30 p.m.