It’s very difficult to argue with a voice like Juan Diego Flórez’s. Mortal singers quake at Rossini’s Cessa di più resistere, the aria that most tenors chalk up as too tricky to include in their role in The Barber of Seville. And they don’t, on the whole, welcome the kind of recital programme that finishes with one of Verdi’s most challenging arias – Parmi veder, from Rigoletto – followed by a barnstorming Donizetti lament capped by a seemingly effortless and casually floated high C.

But Flórez scampers around the minefield of bel canto like a child in a sweetshop. The eyes are winsome and puppyish; the stance open and engaging. Even his reliance on the signposting left arm – a tic that he might be advised to phase out – somehow seems to add to his sincerity. Certainly no one in Cadogan Hall seemed to mind: from an already respectful level of decibels at the opening number, the bravoes soon swelled to a wall-shaking level that almost had you wondering whether “London’s newest concert hall” was sturdy enough to cope.

The chink in the Flórez armour is small, but it is significant. Could he be the Pavarotti of his generation? Not if his belcanto expertise doesn’t eventually make way for a slightly more involving performance style and less of a reliance on a specific tranche of the operatic repertory. There were times during the first half – vocal firework after vocal firework – when it almost seemed that the SW1 set were appraising a wonder racehorse rather than an opera singer. Look at those sturdy high notes! The supple coloratura! The glossy coat!

But, unlike the rather one-dimensional slickness of the accompanying orchestra (the Royal Philharmonic, conducted by Christopher Franklin in no fewer than four overtures), Flórez just kept raising the bar. His Bellini – a bona-fide rarity from Bianca e Fernando – throbbed throughout in true cantabile tone before an astonishingly clear high D. The final Donizetti (from Linda di Chamounix) was filled with imaginative touches – expert use of head voice there, heart-stopping legato here – that stopped all thought of emotional monotony.

And to see the 34-year-old tackle Verdi in such thrilling fashion (including La donna è mobile, expertly wheeled out as an encore) bodes well for a future in the full lyric roles that the Pav himself excelled in. Can he inherit his mantle? The signs are good.

Editor's choice

• The 100 Best Films of the Decade
• 70 facts you didn't know about Marvel
• The 50 Biggest Movies Of 2010