Lesley Garrett

Celebrated operatic soprano Lesley Garrett has established a successful career that allows her to go from classical to musical theatre to reality television and even game and talk shows. Classically trained, Garrett has released 14 solo albums and performed around the world from Australia to Brazil, the USA, Russia, Asia and all across Europe. TV appearances have included 'Strictly Come Dancing', 'Who Do You Think You Are?', 'Countdown' and 'When Royals Wed', and she has been a regular on ITV's 'Loose Women' and Five's 'The Wright Stuff'.

Early appearances at the Wexford Festival, Buxton Festival, Welsh National Opera, Opera North and Glyndebourne Festival led to her joining the English National Opera in 1984. Notable appearances included comic and serious roles in a range of works including 'Xerxes', 'Ariodante', 'The Marriage of Figaro', 'Don Giovanni', 'A Midsummer Marriage', 'The Cunning Little Vixen' and 'The Mikado'. In 1997 Garrett made her debut at the Royal Opera in a production of 'The Merry Widow' and she returned to the ENO in a revival of 'The Barber of Seville'. Turning to musical theatre, she sang songs from 'My Fair Lady' with Jonathan Pryce at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and starred in the West End in 'The Sound of Music' and 'Carousel'. A new production of 'La Voix Humaine' with Opera North followed in 2013 and she continues to perform regularly with major British orchestras such as the Hallè and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.

Among many other TV performances, Garrett appeared with Ruthie Henshall and Michael McCarthy and the Opera North Orchestra in BBC2's 'Lesley Garrett - Music from the Movies' on Christmas Day 2004. She was also a judge on BBC's 'Comic Relief Does Fame Academy', hosts a radio programme on Classic FM and in 2008 presented 'Lesley Garrett's 20 Operas to See Before You Die'. She published her autobiography 'Notes from a Small Soprano' in 2000 and was awarded a CBE for services to music in 2002.

In 2014, she toured with the European Union Chamber Orchestra and sang with the Russian National Orchestra. She sang in 'Cosi Fan Tutte' for Garsington Opera in 2015 and then Mark Simpson's 'Pleasure', also at Opera North. She has made several national tours with her show 'An Evening With Lesley Garrett', in which she performs popular songs and arias and holds a Q&A session.