“Oh wow. I didn’t read that and I didn’t hear that, but that’s quite a statement,” Mr Boe told The Standard.

He went on to add: “That’s quite a shocking statement.”

The tenor pushed back against the actor’s characterisation, insisting that plenty of people remain passionate about opera.

“But to say nobody cares about opera is a bit drastic,” he said.

“I don’t think that’s true. There’s a lot of people who care about opera. My audience love it when I sing opera.”

Mr Boe quipped that he might need to “have a word” with the Dune star.

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The controversy stems from a filmed conversation between Mr Chalamet and fellow actor Matthew McConaughey for Variety, during which the pair discussed declining attention spans in the film industry.

During the exchange, the Oscar-nominated actor expressed his reluctance to pursue work in certain traditional performance disciplines.

“I don’t want to be working in ballet or opera where it’s like, ‘Hey! Keep this thing alive, even though no one cares about this anymore,'” Mr Chalamet said.

The remarks have provoked considerable backlash from figures across the entertainment world, with many defending the enduring relevance of classical performing arts.

The debate arrives at a particularly notable moment for Mr Chalamet, who is set to attend the Academy Awards this weekend as a best actor nominee for his performance in Marty Supreme.

Boe mounted a passionate defence of classical music’s capacity to move audiences in ways other genres cannot match.

“You present classical music to anybody out there and they’d appreciate it in some way, so you can’t say that nobody cares about it,” he said.

The tenor argued that opera possesses exceptional musical qualities that deserve recognition.

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“I think music in general — we care about melody, we care about rhythm and structure — and opera has some of the greatest melodies and structures there are,” he said.

Mr Boe suggested that newcomers to the genre would find themselves profoundly affected by the experience.

“I think they would discover emotions that they hadn’t reached,” he said. “They’d discover feelings that they hadn’t connected with for a long time. Classical music is an incredible art form and it puts you in an emotional state that other music doesn’t.”

Mr Boe is far from the only public figure to challenge Chalamet’s assessment. Whoopi Goldberg took aim at the actor on The View, cautioning him to “be careful” when dismissing other artistic disciplines and urging performers to show respect for different creative forms.