Adriano Graziani finds himself at a crossroads: does this Neath-born former bank worker start climbing the mountain that might ultimately take him to the summits of Covent Garden, the Vienna State Opera or La Scala, Milan? Or does he reach instead for the greasy pole that culminates in a stadium tour and a coveted place on the GMTV sofa with Fiona Phillips?

Plenty of durable opera careers have certainly been made by an all-important, chance big break. In 1968, Plácido Domingo’s debut at the Metropolitan Opera came about because the great Franco Corelli had cried off. Domingo certainly never looked back. Nor did Graziani’s illustrious compatriot, the redoubtable Dame Gwyneth Jones, after she jumped into Verdi’s Il Trovatore at Covent Garden at short notice in 1964, in a performance that effectively made her career.

Graziani is not a total unknown. In fact, he shares with Jones not just his native country but the same alma mater, the Royal College of Music. He has also sung a small but significant role at Scottish Opera, in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor – something his agent is now understandably trying to keep out of this Cinderella fable. But all that may be swept asunder if the burgeoning world of pop-opera proves irresistible. After all, three out of four of the singers in Simon Cowell’s permatanned and phenomenally successful opera band Il Divo are trained professionals. Their decision to abandon the stage for smoochy albums and glitzy tours, where they sing with heavy amplification rather than relying on the humble diaphragm, has paid off handsomely.

The “high hopes” that Welsh National Opera apparently has for its killer substitute may come to naught if he chooses to turn his newfound fame to a similar cause. Still, the populist path is no certain route to success, either. Paul Potts went from Carphone Warehouse salesman to pop-opera star after winning Britain’s Got Talent, but his star is now rapidly waning.

Nicky Spence, a one-time tattie boy at a chip shop in Dumfries, signed a £1 million, five-album recording deal with Universal Classics and Jazz while a student at the Guildhall School of Music, before realising that he actually wanted the real thing. “I want to have a long career as a tenor,” he later told The Times. “And I want people to know that I’m a proper singer, that I don’t just sing with Katherine Jenkins on the TV.”

Adriano, the choice is yours.

Neil Fisher is classical music editor of The Times

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