Ahead of her debut in Aida, Aroyan reflects on her beginnings, Leontyne’s pearls of wisdom, and the roles coming up next.

When did you realise that opera was something you wanted to seriously pursue?

When I was young I always dreamed of being a singer, a pop singer. One of my biggest idols was Tina Arena. I always wanted to perform onstage as I loved the interaction with an audience. After high school, on the advice of my parents, I went to university in case my singing career didn’t work out. This also helped to alleviate the pressure of succeeding in this difficult business. After completing a Bachelor of Business and a Bachelor of Information Technology, I decided that I still wanted to be a pop singer.

During that time, a famous Armenian mezzo and vocal coach, Liliya Ovchiyan, had just moved to Australia and my parents took me to her concert. That weekend I experienced opera for the first time, and I thought, “wow, this woman’s voice is so voluptuous and voluminous, without a microphone… I have to learn from her.” So, we approached her, I told her about my pop aspirations and sang for her. After just one...