“Of all the characteristics which define Argentinian tenor Marcelo Alvarez, one shouts loudest: he had never been to an opera until he was 32… Within a year, he had made a celebrated operatic debut at La Fenice, Venice, the theatre which kickstarted the careers of Maria Callas and Luciano Pavarotti. Now 44, Alvarez ranks as a colossus of the operatic scene. How could all this have happened so quickly?”