Audiences are always going to be curious about a performer such as Maayan Licht. The Israeli-born sopranista is no shrinking violet, after all. Not for nothing is “Farinelli meets Freddie Mercury” a commonly used descriptor.

Speaking to Limelight on the day of his Australian debut performance at Sydney’s Great Synagogue, at the top of a four-city tour for Vladimir Fanshil and Eleanor Lyons’ Live at Yours series, Licht acknowledges audience curiosity about a male performer with a female soprano’s vocal range.

“It’s natural and I like the attention, of course,” he says. “But in the end, I’m here to serve the music. I believe that with my voice actually lets people enjoy beauty. It awakens people’s curiosity.”

Maayan Licht. Photo © Matthias Jung

Licht arrives in Australia with a repertoire designed to showcase the extraordinary possibilities of the high male voice, ranging from Vivaldi and Handel to Porpora and Riccardo Broschi – with Bizet’s Habanera from Carmen as a showy encore.

He has devoted years of training to exploring the “extremities of singing”. He sees his approach to the voice as scientific: an investigation into vibration, resonance and the way sound communicates directly with the listener.

The results speak for themselves. From the sonic perspective alone, the effect is spectacular, and Licht’s ability to sing high and fast has become his calling card. But he is equally interested in what happens around the notes – the character, physicality and theatrical drama that turn virtuosity into performance.

His approach is emphatically whole-body, he explains, adding that he was a gymnast before he was a singer. As well as singing, he also studied physical acting at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. Physical strength and fitness is essential to creating ansd supporting his sound, he says. “In my training, I do a lot of planks, a lot of body work and a lot of rowing machine. You sing with your entire body, not just with your throat, your lungs, your mouth.”

And there are other benefits, he says. “Being single in the gay world is tough. You need you need to look good!”

Maayan Licht. Portrait © Filip Adamus

He says it took something like 12 years to become confident in his voice and now he can hit the marks without fear of failure. The goal, he says, is to make the skill part of his nature: “It’s just another way of communication, and the sound is there to serve it.”

Licht’s Australian repertoire is rooted in Baroque opera and sacred music, but in Europe he regularly ventures into contemporary opera and projects with DJs. He is particularly interested in technology and crossover projects that might bring new audiences into the operatic world.

“Opera needs a big shake-up,” he says. “I mean, if you were to ask me what I do with a free evening, I’m not going to say, ‘I’m going to go to the opera.’ And that’s a shame, because I love it. I see a lot of boring stuff happening around me all the time, and unfortunately, I’ve been part of a lot of boring productions. I find that hard.”

Being the bearer of a rare vocal gift means that Licht seldom encounters a male peer in the business. Tenors can get together and bro down all day long. Sopranistas? Not so much.

“I get all my inspiration from female sopranos,” he says. “I haven’t found a male singer that I can look up to like that.”

Maybe you’ll have to be that guy, Limelight says.

“Yeah!” Licht laughs. “That’s my mission. That’s a way to light a fire under my ass!”

Maayan Licht: Coluratura Queen is at the Great Synagogue, Sydney 11 and 12 August, the Toorak Synagogue, Melbourne on 13 August, at the Castlemaine Festival, Victoria on 14 August and at Adelaide Town Hall on 15 August.