Juan Diego Flórez once again steps into Tonio’s shoes—and up to his nine high Cs—, reprising one of the roles that have made him famous. It was precisely with the acrobatic aria “Ah mes amis” in 2007 that the Peruvian tenor violated, to thunderous applause, Toscanini’s ban on encores at La Scala. He now returns to the stage in the highly acclaimed production by Laurent Pelly for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, shifting the setting for the love story of the canteen girl, Marie, from the Tyrolean valleys threatened by Bonaparte’s troops to the trenches of the First World War. An amusing and poetic classic embellished by the presence in the orchestra pit of the bel canto specialist Evelino Pidò.