To me, bel canto isn’t just a technical term. It means beautiful singing, but it’s also about maintaining the beauty of the sound and keeping the voice legato. At heart I’m a bel canto singer – I think the core of my voice is a beautiful sound – but to add drama, I have to become a bit un-bel canto, and that’s a challenge. Doing bigger things like Violetta in La Traviata requires a different way of singing.

I first came across bel canto listening to recordings of Joan Sutherland when I was studying at the Conservatorium in Perth. I went to college only knowing La Bohème and Don Giovanni, so I would sit up and listen in the library at night – opera after opera after opera – just so as I could learn the repertoire.

It was there amongst the scores and the records that I fell in love with great bel canto singers like Elly Ameling and Edita Gruberová. I listened to the younger ones too, like Sumi Jo and Cecilia Bartoli, because their coloratura was – and is – so amazing. I listened to Cecilia’s early recordings and I loved the...