“I have three favourite creatures in the world – my three dogs,” Sumi Jo tells “CityNews” by phone from Frascati, on the edge of Rome, where the celebrated Korean-born soprano lives.

“If you met me on the street when I run with my dogs, I don’t think you’d recognise me, I wear a baseball hat – that’s me, that’s Sumi… but on stage I’m a diva, I’m a prima donna, I feel like a queen.”

She’s a super-busy diva, but she’ll be here during November to perform with a full orchestra for the second time at “Voices in the Forest”.

This time Jo has carefully prepared a musical tribute to the great Greek-American soprano Maria Callas, saying: “I have to find something for my own voice and my own personality” and predicting that the highlight will be “Casta diva” from Bellini’s “Norma”.

After a wounding experience earlier this year when she was sidelined from singing her Academy Award-nominated song “Simple Song” at the Oscars ceremony, Jo declares herself delighted to be coming back to appreciative Australia.

Artistic director of “Voices”, Chris Latham, describes Jo’s singing as “transcendent perfection” and the diva herself as “very gorgeous”, but what endeared her to him most was that when last she was in Canberra, she asked to visit the RSPCA.

Dogs aside, Jo is a noted ambassador for peace and, like stars Gong Li and Celine Dion, she travels the world on UNESCO’s behalf.

“What I do is music, but the music is fundamentally not for personal pleasure but for my mission,” she says.

“I’m using music as a powerful weapon to tell people that we can be nice, that we can talk the united language that is music.”

Jo keeps up with the Korean musical diaspora and knows all about Australian Korean-born “Eurovision” star Dami Im.

“My story’s sort of contrary to hers, I started out as a popstar when I was very young and then I became an opera star,” she says.

“I’m still so interested in all kinds of music, so I’m following Dami’s career. I call her a true musician; she plays the piano, she is a complete artist and a very fine young Australian. You must be so proud.”

In her 2016 visit to Australia, the spotlight may be on Callas, but it was in fact Australia’s Joan Sutherland who had the greatest influence on her.

“I loved Joan Sutherland from a very early age,” she says.

“You know, I personally met her. I visited her in her house on Lake Geneva and she cooked for me.”

Callas, she says, “is the one and only, she is a legend, nobody can touch her.”

“Maria Callas’ story is fascinating to me as an artist,” Jo continues, as we reflect on her long, sad affair with Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.

“I’ve seen a lot of prima donnas and loneliness is a part of being a perfectionist. Once, because she wanted to be a perfect artist, Callas lost 30 kilograms so that she could wear designer dresses… she was far more famous than a movie star, but in the end she suffered, because she died alone – it’s an incredible story.

“Just compare the story of Callas with Joan – she had a beautiful career and a beautiful husband and a son, she tried to live life as normally as possible. Personally, I’d like to follow the Joan Sutherland model – a prima donna who enjoyed the simple things.”

But in one respect – the designer dresses – Sumi Jo does follow Callas.

“My dresses are very heavy and prepared by the very best designers,” she says. “Some of them weigh 20 kilograms. They’re very heavy… so when I travel it’s usually with three or four dresses, I have to pay extra for the flight.”

With the UNESCO visits, if it’s a VIP recital, she wears very serious designs. “But when I go to visit kids, as I did in the Philippines, I like to be with them, I sing with them, I become a child with them,” she says.

“The wigs, the make-up, the jewellery – it’s a whole performance with me.

“Actually, I own 250 dresses. For me it’s very important to wear the best dress so the audience can listen to the beautiful music – it’s a whole package.”

“Voices in the Forest 2016”, National Arboretum Canberra, Saturday, November 19, 6.30-9.30pm. Gates open at 3.30pm. Bookings to trybooking.com and information at voicesintheforest.com.au