Claudio Baglioni, Joseph Calleja shine in annual concert
The annual Joseph Calleja concert was held this evening on the Granaries in Floriana, once again attracting thousands of people in what has become a traditional event.
The Maltese tenor entertained the crowds to a wide selection of opera songs, but as he did in the past, took part in duets with his guests.
Calleja chose less popular arias such as “La Dolicissima effige” and “Gladiatore”, once again showing the wide repertoire under his belt which have made him one of the most popular tenors in the world.
The guests included Italian star Claudio Baglioni, with whom Calleja sang the popular Questo Piccolo Grande Amore twice during the night, both to standing ovations.
Baglioni also sang a few of his many great songs including Strada Facendo, E Tu, La Vita e’ Adesso, Via and Mille Giorni di te e di me.
He also sang Torna a Surriento in a duet with Joseph Calleja, and interacted with the crowd often using the Maltese language to do so. “Il-Lejla t-tajba” and “Grazzi hafna” were among the phrases he used, and he also started off his first song (Strada Facendo) by singing a phrase from “L-Ahhar Bidwi f’Wied il-Ghasel”, a Maltese popular song which Baglioni had sung in full – and in Maltese – when he had last came to Malta in 2007 for a concert with Gianni Morandi and Riccardo Cocciante at the Valletta Waterfront.
Other guests were Leona Lewis and Bryn Terfel. The duets they sang with Calleja – The Prayer (Lewis) and Granada (Terfel) were among the highlights of the show.
