The world-renowned Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja and his wife, soprano Tatiana Lisnic, yesterday filed a judicial protest in court over the DVD recording of the concert the two gave in Mdina on 7 July.

The judicial protest was filed in the First Hall of the Civil Court against Renaissance Productions Limited (RPL) and the Public Broadcasting Services Limited.

Lawyer Franco Vassallo explained that the couple signed a contract with RPL to give a concert in Mdina at the beginning of July. Part of this contract regarded the recording of the said concert which obliged the organisers to show the final, edited version of the DVD to them before it was released or broadcast.

However, the couple claimed that RPL entered into a profit-sharing agreement with the national station for the sale of the said DVD which had not even been given the go-ahead by the singers.

Mr Calleja and Ms Lisnic said that they had to protect their artistic and professional integrity and could not accept that the recording, in raw form, be distributed in this manner.

They called on PBS and RPL to stop circulating the DVD or any other recording before they see it and give their permission for this to be distributed.