Best’s career has seen two springs. The singer was a choir boy from five-years-old only for his voice to “refuse to drop” at 15. He went onto formal training in his thirties.

The Melbourne-based tenor will star as Mario Lanzo in Lanzo Sings Again alongside soprano Alison Jones at Her Majesty’s Theatre this month. 

Now in his early fifties, Best has worked with Opera Australia, Victorian Opera and the Australian Pops Orchestra.

“From about 15 through to about 25 it (Best’s vocal range) was pretty pathetic and that’s amazing because they’re the formative years of any singer,” Best, who worked as a mechanic and was racing cars when his voice began to develop, said.

“Then from about 30 my voice started to develop. The Three Tenors started with their concerts and I watched that on the television and I could sing along with them and I thought ‘that’s interesting’. I couldn’t belt out a high note and it told me that I could sing.”

Best first heard Lanzo sing in a midday movie on a black-and-white TV when he was a young child. 

Known as one of the world’s best tenors, the American-Italian opera singer died of a heart attack in 1959 aged 38.

“The middle of a Saturday afternoon they put those sorts of movies on when I was a kid and I saw this guy singing and for my whole life when anybody mentioned opera that’s what I thought they meant - Mario Lanza,” he said.

“He produced a thrilling sound and it was good that it came across on a small television speaker so it must have been a pretty good voice.”

Lanza Sings Again will be performed at Her Majesty’s Theatre on Monday, July 10 at 2pm. Best will perform alongside international soprano Alison Jones who plays the role of Kathryn Grayson, Lanza’s favourite co-lead. 

The pair will be accompanied by pianist Len Vorster and their story narrated by Chris McKenna. Songs include Be My Love, Because You’re Mine, La Donna e Mobile, Strangers In Paradise, Drink Drink, O Sole Mio, The Loveliest Night Of The Year, You’ll Never Walk Alone and Granada. 

Tickets at hermaj.com.