Tenor Joseph Calleja is to perform a solo concert at the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Stockholm in December.

The prestigious event will be held in the Swedish capital’s Royal Castle on December 8, the same day Nobel prizes are awarded.

Nobel Prize laureates will be in the audience.

The concert, also featuring the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, will be broadcast on international television stations.

The news comes on the back of Mr Calleja’s three-month run of performances in New York, where he received rave reviews after singing leading roles in three operas.

Writing for the Associated Press, critic Mike Silverman said of Mr Calleja’s performance at the Met in La Boheme last December: “Still in his early 30s, (he) has a voice unlike anyone else on the operatic scene today.”

Arlene Judith Klotzko from Concertonet.com was no less impressed: “For sheer beauty of sound, I find his voice unsurpassed by any other tenor currently active…

“He does record very well, on disk and in broadcasts but, unlike many singers whose recordings are more revealing of their vocal gifts, Calleja’s voice, to be fully appreciated, really should be heard live.”

However, perhaps the best reviews were saved till last after the Maltese tenor’s acclaimed performances as Edgardo in Lucia di Lamermoor in February and March.

Zachary Woolfe for The New York Times wrote: “Joseph Calleja was sensationally ardent as Lucia’s lover, Edgardo, one of the best roles of his young, exciting Met career.”

The critic writing for An Unamplified Voice was equally enthused with the Maltese tenor’s performance: “To be present when a person does anything as well as tenor Joseph Calleja sings Edgardo in the Met’s revival of Lucia is one of the great joys of life – and not least of the reasons we bother with opera.

“Calleja sounds great... but he basically always sounds great... The wonder isn’t that he nimbly passes the purely vocal hurdles that smashed Rolando Villazon’s career just two years back, but how thoroughly Calleja’s senses of ­proportion and detail... make a profoundly simple whole (or a series thereof) of his evening’s singing.”

Meanwhile, the Classical Source critic had this to say: “Dessay’s disappointing performance was a painful contrast to that of Joseph Calleja, for whom she came off as a less than ideal vocal and visual match. As Lucia’s lover and unofficial husband Edgardo, Calleja was in absolutely splendid vocal form. He is a true lyric tenor in the Italianate style, his soaring high notes and subtle pianissimos reminiscent of legendary singers of past generations.”

This year promises to be a big one for Mr Calleja, with Decca records releasing his third solo album next month.

Recorded last summer in Geneva with Maestro Marco Armiliato and the Orchestra Suisse Romande, the aptly titled The Maltese Tenor – which features a Maltese Cross on its cover – comprises a range of Italian and French arias including E lucevan le stelle, Che Gelida manina and Recondita Armonia.

His annual concert in Malta will this year be at the Granaries in Floriana on July 9, where he will be joined by Italian singer Lucio Dalla and soprano Hayley Westenra.

Pre-sale tickets for the concert will be available to all those registered on www.nngpromotions.com at a €10 discount on seated tickets until Wednesday or from Vodafone retail outlets. Regular tickets, starting from €35, will be on sale from Wednesday.

Watch Joseph Calleja’s interview with NBC New York Nightly News filmed during his Met performances on www.timesofmalta.com.