Juan Diego Flórez is in Milan when Limelight reaches him. He’s nearing the end of a short season of Donizetti’s La Fille du régiment at La Scala, the opera house where he made an early-career splash nearly 30 years ago singing the second-tier role of Le Chevalier Danois in Gluck’s Armide.

“I love being here and La Fille is a very funny opera; the production is wonderful,” Flórez says. “But tomorrow is the last performance – and so I’m happy!”

I mention that it’s an opera that’s been absent from Australian stages for years. Flórez seems surprised. “It was Dame Joan Sutherland made that opera famous!”

Portrait Juan Diego Florez for Sony Classical Intl.

Singing the role of Tonio in La Scala’s revival of a Laurent Pelly production, Flórez says he’s still taking on the occasional staged opera, but his heart is really in recital. It’s here, with just a piano or guitar for company, that he is most comfortable, sharing his love for bel canto tenor repertoire with audiences worldwide.

“It’s wonderful to be in front of an audience and creating something,” he says. “You can take more risks; you can communicate...