Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/501315
14 CALL me superstitious, but I couldn't help feeling something otherworldly about my drive last Friday morning to an appointment with Joseph Calleja in Valletta. It was as though an army of Wagne- rian Valkyries suddenly thundered across the sky, obliterating 'O Sole Mio' behind a dark wall of threaten- ing clouds. Lightning flashed, rain came pelting down. And all along, deep rumblings rolled ominously in the distance. It was something straight out of the Ring cycle: you could almost hear the tap of the conductor's baton in preparation for the initial orchestral blast. The heavens, it seems, were preparing me for an encounter with the wonderful world of opera. And who better to epitomise this world than Joseph Calleja, whose voice has reverberated through every major theatre in the world? Last week it was heard in Kansas City and Boston; next month it will be Covent Garden in London, fol- lowed by Bratislava, Paris, Amster- dam, etc. "It sounds glamorous, I know, but trust me, it isn't really," the Maltese tenor confides when we finally meet (Malta having been temporarily put on hold by the unexpected down- pour) at the Casa Ellul Hotel on Old Theatre Street. And even though speaking almost in sotto voce, his voice still seems to echo around the room: incisive, resolute and precise. Later, he will suggest that hav- ing such a voice is both a gift and a burden. But for the moment I am interested to know how it all began. As it happens, another famous Mal- tese tenor – Paul Asciak, who was also Calleja's first tutor – passed away this week, and Joseph Calleja will sing at his funeral the day after this interview. Like Calleja today, Paul Asciak was something of a local legend in his own time: one of a tiny handful of local personalities to earn success and critical acclaim on the global stage. How extensive was his influence on Calleja's early career? "I met Paul exactly – hate to say it now, but 27 years ago, when I was 15," he begins. "I was driven there by a friend so that he could hear me sing. The minute he heard me, he did this with his glasses" – here Calleja presses an imaginary pair of specs into his forehead with his middle fin- ger – "and I thought: I'm either very good, or very bad. It was quite a star- tled reaction." No surprises for guessing the cor- rect answer: "It turned out I was very good. Or at least, my talent was good… I was singing atrociously at the time. But I was born with a very considerable gift. It's not thanks to me; it's nature. My achievement was honing that gift, through Paul's help, and the discipline involved in learn- ing the art of singing in the operatic way…" As for Asciak's direct influence, this went well beyond mere vocal coach- ing. "To be successful in the operatic world you need more skills than just singing. You need diplomacy. Skills in managing your team. There's a PR team, a team of agencies, manag- ers… then you have to deal with the press… Paul's help was instrumental in acquiring these skills: and to ac- quire them precociously, too. I had my debut in opera at the age of 19; that's a prodigious age to start an operatic career. It's tantamount to having a 17-year-old prime minister, or a 15-year-old immediately playing for Inter Milan's first team. You can count the male opera singers who started at that age on one hand. Plac- ido Domingo was one of them, Jussi Bjorling was another…" But it wasn't necessarily an easy ride to the top. Training under Paul Asciak, he recalls, involved hours upon hours of hard work at a time. "Ironically, singing was the thing we did least, because he didn't want to overstrain my voice. What he de- manded from me, at age 15, was total discipline and dedication. No night- life, no friends, no girlfriends." He breaks into a grin. "And of course, when you're 15 your hor- mones are raging, as a guy… but he was right. A lifestyle of partying and drinking, even just a few nights a week… even if you're not drinking: just talking, shouting and laughing… if you don't actually damage your voice, you'll tire it. You can't sing op- era with a tired voice. So he was very demanding. I remember one time, he 'caught' me listening to a recording of Placido Domingo singing 'Otello' – I wasn't supposed to even listen to certain arias, lest they influenced me – and he punched me in the shoul- der. Now, I've always been a big guy, but Paul, even in his mid-70s…" He smiles again at the memory. "He hurt me, almost. That's how insistent he was…" Was Paul Asciak the only early mu- sical influence? No, Calleja replies… and surprises me by citing my old former school as another factor in his musical formation. "I've always sung since I was three years old. I went to De La Salle, and I remember John Taylor calling me over at assembly…" His tone changes startlingly as he impersonates my old school master of discipline (a voice I remember only too well) to perfec- tion: "'Oy, you… you were too loud on the bus!' I'd say, 'but that's not loud, it's just the way I talk…' But he loved me, really. And De La Salle was very musically inclined. There was Daniel Buhagiar with his guitar; we sang Italian pop songs in class; there was the school choir, the school rock band… it was a very musical environ- ment to grow up in. And not just at school, either. Music in Malta – per- haps not opera, but music in general – is very much part of our identity as a society…" It has, in fact, often been remarked that for such a small population, Malta seems to produce a lot of mu- sicians… Calleja nods emphatically. "We're like the Welsh. It's exactly the same situation, a very small pop- ulation that produces great musical talent. I don't know why; perhaps it is the Latin culture colliding with all the others… you have French, Spanish, Portuguese cultures, some Arab culture in there as well. Malta is a pot-pourri of cultures… which is why I kind of grin when people start being xenophobic or racist. Especial- ly when they claim that we're some sort of Aryan pure-blood race. We're anything but…" This unprompted allusion to rac- ism pre-empts a question I intended to ask later. Apart from an illustri- ous career in opera, Calleja is also a cultural ambassador for Malta: a role he takes very seriously, as attested by his frequent, outspoken interven- tions on various (sometimes very contentious) issues. One issue he has regularly spoken about is immigra- tion, and his calls for a more humane approach have even entangled him in online spats with precisely the sort of people he has just described. In a sense this makes Joseph Calleja quite different from the art-form he embodies. Opera and other mani- festations of the 'high arts' are often viewed as being somehow cocooned from the more unpleasant realities of daily life (even if, paradoxically, most operas deal precisely with those reali- ties). Given the events of the past two weeks – in which over 700 people drowned while attempting the cross- ing from Africa to Europe – does he view opera as being possibly relevant to the harsh realities of today? "More than opera that's relevant, I would say it is the personality who is singing. Whether we like it or not – whether I like it or not – in Malta I have become one of the very few rec- ognisable international personalities. And I do get recognised. In big cities like New York, for instance. I meet people who recognise me all the time. So in public, I have to be care- ful how to conduct myself. Thank- fully I don't have any skeletons in the closet. My idea of a good time is to enjoy the odd bottle of wine (maybe two, sometimes, when I'm not sing- ing) with friends or family…" Apart from the pressure it inevita- bly exerts on privacy, fame also brings with it a certain responsibility. "In Malta, I try to use the influ- ence, so to speak… not to educate, because that would be patronising, but to serve as an eye-opener for certain issues. I think that, in truth, Malta is not really racist, as much as ignorant. Part of the population re- ally believes that 'lampuki' will eat rotting cadavers in the water… I mean, all these folk who go on the various media: blogs, online com- ments, tweets, and so on. All they have to do is imagine themselves in that sea. Or, worse still, imagine their children in that sea. Unless they are completely psychotic, I think they would instantaneously realise they are being completely unreasonable. Almost bordering on the criminal…" Calleja stresses that Malta is histor- ically associated with mass migration anyway. "We have on frequent occa- sions migrated to other countries: Australia, Canada, America, the UK. People might argue that it was differ- ent, because the migration was legal. But what if we had had no choice? Would we still have gone? Well, of course. Of course we would have tried everything to ameliorate our situation… to give our children the best quality of life possible…" But there is another side to the coin, he adds. Just as he feels com- pelled to try and 'open eyes' locally, Joseph Calleja is also quick to defend Malta from criticism overseas. "I don't say these things to get an ego-boost, or a pat on the back. In fact sometimes I open my mouth on unpopular issues, when I could have just said nothing. But I think that the truth is not being told, and when Malta is featured in a bad light, I always spring to its defence. Is it cliché? Yes, it is. But it's the truth. I am patriotic, and I truly love this is- land." He pauses. "Not everyone on this island," he carries on with a laugh. "There are a few people I would gladly feed to the sharks…" Meanwhile Calleja's diplomatic ef- forts as cultural ambassador have by no means been limited to immigra- tion. His voice has also been heard defending Malta over the conten- tious hunting issue… in reaction to a particularly damning news report on German station RTL. "It portrayed Malta as a bunch of troglodyte barbarians who blast eve- rything out of the sky. Now, I went hunting a couple of times in my teens and early twenties. And back then illegal hunting was much more rife. Again, it was mostly due to igno- rance. I saw hunters leaving bird car- casses in the field, without even pick- ing them up. It was bad. Really bad. But by the time the RTL programme came out, there had been huge im- provements. I stopped hunting some 16, 17 years ago, but I still take long walks in the countryside. In the last two years I didn't witness one single hunting irregularity. Am I saying it doesn't happen at all? Of course it happens. But much less nowadays, and it definitely doesn't translate into the notion of an entire country of barbarians who shoot everything that flies." Calleja however surprised many by Interview By Raphael Vassallo maltatoday, SUNDAY, 26 APRIL 2015 Still Puccini after PATRIOTISM When Malta is featured in a bad light, I always spring to its defence. Is it cliché? Yes, it is. But it's the truth. I am patriotic, and I truly love this island All they have to do is imagine themselves in that sea. Or, worse still, imagine their children in that sea. Unless they are completely psychotic, I think they would instantaneously realise they are being completely unreasonable RACISM