Critically acclaimed American singer Eric Cutler should never have been an opera singer.

He even brands himself, “the luckiest tenor alive!”

Set to perform the lead in Fidelio this week at Covent Garden, Eric, 48, would have been a “conservationist” in sleepy rural Iowa, had he not met Pablo Testolini, a Mexican exchange student, when he was still at high school.

“I was about 15 and in the 10^th grade, when Pablo and I became friends.

“We were playing billiards one night and in the basement, and he put on opera. I'll never forget it. It was Luciano Pavarotti singing Tosca, the third act aria.

“I remember I looked at him and I said, ‘what is that?’ And he's like, ‘it's opera’. I'm like, ‘what?’ And from that moment on, I would tell him to put on another one. And so on.”

Pablo’s interest stemmed from his father, a tenor, but Eric kept his passion for opera a secret from his own family, and friends.

Said Eric: “I would go to the public library in Des Moines, drive to the city and check out recordings, and would listen, and then to progress, I would get the score to the music. By the time I was a senior in high school, I was learning these arias.”

Added Eric: “You must understand, I grew up in a farming state. Iowa is like 92 per cent farmland.

“My grandparents were farmers, and I grew up in a very small town of about 3000 people.

“You know, there's no opera house in Iowa!”

Finally, he came out as a budding opera singer to his mother after he showed her The Three Tenors in concert.

“I said to her, ‘this is what it is’. And she's like, ‘really, can you make money? Can you make money doing that?’ I said, ‘I think so’.”

“For fun,” his voice coach entered Eric in the Metropolitan Opera auditions. “I won a place, I was 21.”

He still had much to learn.

Eric admitted: “I had never seen an opera before I was in one.

“I was wet behind the ears.”

Things have moved on and this year, he's celebrating 25 years on stage, with performances around the world.

“This kid coming from Iowa, I couldn't have imagined that this would take me all over the world the way it has.”

Pablo lives on in the family. “We named our dog after him!

“I also probably wouldn't have met my wife, who I met singing. I don't know if my kids would be here.

“It was just a way of honouring this guy who came into my life and it changed it forever.”