Heldentenor Stuart Skelton has made a tough call, but probably the right one.

The most disappointing news for many this week will have been the withdrawal from the Sydney Symphony Orchestra Tristan and Isolde of Aussie heldentenor par excellence Stuart Skelton. His role debut will now take place in Baden-Baden next year instead of on his home turf – and no one is sorrier, I suspect, than Stuart. A singer known for his resilience and reliability, this will have been a difficult call to make. We are all grateful to Lance Ryan stepping in to fill the breach.

As the press release made clear, Stuart had suffered earlier in the year from a nasty chest infection, and although he is perfectly well now, it set back his preparation for what most Wagnerian singers would consider one of the pinnacles of the repertoire. He simply didn’t have enough time left to work the role into his body to his – and what he would consider equally important – the audiences’ likely satisfaction. This kind of thing simply goes to show that far from the stereotype of the fat lady singing, today’s opera stars need to be as match fit as a world-class athlete.

Having interviewed him a few weeks ago, I thought it worth sharing a few thoughts from the man himself. Talking about his first encounter with the opera, its importance rang out loud and clear: “I was young and stupid, so I don’t know whether I got it in the way that I get it now,” he told me, “but I got it enough to know that the world had changed – the way it does when music, and storytelling through music, becomes part of your altered DNA in some way.”

When I asked him what the greatest challenge was, the stamina thing was top of the list. “When he really does blow the roof off the world in Act Three,” he said, “you’ve got to have held your nerve physically and emotionally and be ready to sing like you’re going to retire and then do it the same way 48 hours later!”

For a long time Tristan was something that Stuart didn’t actually think he would sing. “It was something so rarefied that I didn’t want to touch it,” he said. “Sometimes things are so beautiful and on such a different level that you feel if you touch it, or breathe, or move you’ll ruin it.” When you put it like that, I’d say good call Stuart.