Lesley Garrett feels blessed to have been born in Yorkshire. The opera star, often labelled the ‘Doncaster Diva’, is actually from the South Yorkshire town of Thorne and says she owes everything to her childhood in the industrial North.

“I grew up in a mining community, my family were miners and railway workers, and when I was growing up it seemed there was a choir on every street corner,” she says. “Every mill, factory and colliery had its own choir or brass band. Music was a major part of industrial life, that’s where the tradition of choral singing in Yorkshire comes from. My mum and dad are well into their seventies now but Mum still sings with a classical choir and my dad set up an amateur dramatics society.

“For working-class families like mine, music was part of everyday life,” adds Lesley. “I don’t just mean listening to music – I’m talking about making and performing music. We didn’t have much money but we had a piano in our house, as many ordinary homes did, and I grew up singing around it. My grandad was taught to play piano by his father, a miner, and he played for silent movies. He taught us all to play. My other grandad played in a dance band.

“Without doubt, the community I grew up in had a major influence on my life as a singer. I wouldn’t want to have been born anywhere else. I’d never heard a professional orchestra until I was 15 and I didn’t see my first opera until I was 16, but I grew up surrounded by music.

“Music is more readily available than ever before, thanks to the internet – you rarely see a kid without an iPod, listening to downloaded music – yet there isn’t so much amateur music-making these days.”

One of the country’s most successful and popular singers, Lesley firmly believes that singing is good for body and soul.

“Singing is life-affirming; there’s a sensual power that comes with creating a sound with your own body,” she says. “Communal singing is joyous; it’s a great release of energy, it unites our physical, spiritual and emotional capacities and it helps us bond. We sing at football matches, in war, on chain gangs and factory production lines.

“My dearest wish is that schools would bring back choral singing in assemblies, there’s no better way to start the day. My school, Thorne Grammar School, did an amazing job in encouraging us to sing together.

“We were taught songs in French and Spanish by language teachers, not just music teachers.

“Singing together means you’re part of a team, it develops oral skills and teaches language and history. Our social history can be charted through song.”

Mother-of-two Lesley, 55, is currently touring a recital of songs and arias from operas, musicals and popular music – she recently performed in Bradford – and she’s relishing the return to her classical roots.

“It’s just me accompanied by a pianist. It’s all about voice projection – singing the way I was trained,” she says. “To sing classical and opera properly you need to project your voice. This year I’m celebrating my 30th anniversary as a professional singer and it’s lovely to return to my roots with a recital. I like to stray and take on new challenges, but I always come back to classical music.

“What separates classical singers from others is that we are servants of the music. Some pop songs can be described as classic – I’m thinking of the Beatles, Elvis and Elton John to a certain extent – but pop is generally synonymous with the singer and their image. With classical music that’s not the case.

“For this recital tour I’ve chosen pieces by composers such as Mozart, Vivaldi and Vaughan Williams, moving on to Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Noel Coward, Rodgers and Hammerstein and George Gershwin. I’m singing from Porgy and Bess, which many regard as a musical but Gershwin wrote as an opera.”

Lesley’s early operatic career included stints with Opera North and Welsh National Opera before joining English National Opera. She has performed in operas and in concert worldwide, and released 14 albums.

Her career has spanned concerts, TV, radio and the West End. On TV she has hosted the Classical Brit Awards, judged Comic Relief Does Fame Academy, been the subject of a South Bank Show, BBC1’s family history programme Who Do You Think You Are? and competed on Strictly Come Dancing. She has appeared in West End productions of The Sound of Music, as the Mother Abbess, and Carousel. Did it whet her appetite for musical theatre?

“Not really,” she says. “I loved both shows and I’m proud of what I did. I’d wanted to sing the Mother Abbess role since I saw The Sound of Music as a girl and fell in love with it, then there I was in my 50s making my West End debut in it.

“It was a wonderful role for a classical singer of my age. But there aren’t too many roles like that in musicals.”

She’s currently a regular on ITV’s Loose Women panel, chewing the fat with fellow Yorkshire singer, Jane MacDonald. “I love it. It’s catching up with my mates for a chat,” smiles Lesley.

Her mission to make opera more accessible, coupled with her down-to-earth Yorkshire charm, have endeared her to mainstream audiences. Her passion lies with opera itself, rather than pop opera compilations.

“Listening to an aria should be the beginning of a journey,” she says. “I always make a point of telling audiences about the context of a song, set against the story of the opera it’s from, and hopefully that will inspire them to go and see the opera itself. Opera is for everyone – it’s about love, hate, passion, tragedy, all of which are part of real life.

“You can’t beat live performance. I love the connection I make with singing on stage. It’s energy transference, an exchange of emotion between performer and audience. That’s what keeps me fascinated with it after 30 years.”