If Lesley Garrett had her way, every child in the country would start the day with a song.

“I feel very strongly that schools should begin with singing in assembly; it uplifts the mind and spirit and opens all channels of learning for the day,” she says. “It doesn’t have to be hymns – although I find hymns incredibly uplifting – but when children are singing together, taking deep breaths and throwing their heads back to make a sound, it sets them up for the day. It certainly worked for me at school, and my children.”

Choral singing has enjoyed something of a resurgence over the last year or so, thanks largely to choirmaster Gareth Malone, the frontman of such TV programmes as The Choir and Military Wives.

Then there’s American TV series Glee, which has made communal singing fashionable among children and teenagers.

“I think Gareth Malone should be knighted,” says Lesley. “What he’s doing – getting ordinary people to find their voices and express themselves through song – is brilliant.

“This country’s choral tradition is second to none and I’m thrilled it’s coming back into vogue. It’s the most natural form of music and it’s something we all do, whether at a football match or a wedding. It engages so many skills – leadership, team-work, even maths and geography – and it’s such a healthy thing to do.”

It was at Thorne Grammar School near Doncaster where Lesley developed the passion for music she inherited from her family. Her father was a railway signalman and her mother a seamstress, and Lesley recalls a house filled with music.

“We had a piano, as many working-class homes did. My grandad, a miner and self-taught concert pianist, taught us to play. There was a lot of music in my childhood – not just listening to it, but making it too,” says the nation’s favourite soprano. “Singing and music-making is tied up with Yorkshire’s industrial heritage. Where you had dangerous jobs, like heavy industry and mining, you got choirs and brass bands. It gave working people a release of energy and a voice.

“Until the 1960s, music was written to be performed without a microphone, but these days people don’t project their voices so much, which is a shame. Your voice is an instrument; when it makes a sound it’s a powerful, exciting thing, “ adds Lesley. “It lasts a lifetime; my mother, who’s now in her 80s, still sings in choral societies.”

Earlier this year Lesley, 56, filled St George’s Hall in Bradford with her voice, as a special guest at the Halle Orchestra’s New Year Viennese concert, celebrating popular waltzes, polkas and marches from Strauss and other masters of Viennese music.

“St George’s Hall has one of the best acoustics in the country – what I call a golden acoustic, because it’s true, clear and wonderful to sing in, “ says Lesley. “I feel at home with a big orchestra.”

After graduating from the Royal Academy of Music, Lesley worked with companies such as Opera North before becoming principal soprano at English National Opera. As well as appearing in opera and in concert, she has released 13 albums and become a popular TV star, competing on Strictly Come Dancing and appearing as a regular panellist on Loose Women.

In recent years, Lesley has entered the realm of musical theatre, playing Mother Abbess in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s revival of The Sound Of Music and Nettie in Carousel, both in the West End.

Last year she returned to The Sound Of Music for the final stint of the tour.

While she has no plans to continue with musicals – “I’ve done the big roles and there aren’t really any parts left for me” – she reveals that a return to opera is on the cards.

“There are plans a-foot, that’s all I can say right now, “ she smiles.

What sets Lesley apart from the often lightweight pop opera genre is that she makes a point of telling audiences about the context of arias within their opera, rather than simply performing them as standalone numbers.

“When I was growing up, we all listened to opera; it wasn’t seen as elitist and I see no reason why it should be now, “ she says. “Opera was written for the people – Gilbert and Sullivan wrote operas, as did Handel and Purcell. Andrew Lloyd Webber is our foremost writer of musicals and he’s rooted in opera.

“When it’s part of school life, that’s when we’ll see it become commonplace again.”