Lesley Garrett
Lesley Garrett
Lesley Garrett, CBEis an English soprano singer, musician, broadcaster and media personality. She is noted for being at home in opera and "crossover music"...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionOpera Singer
Date of Birth10 April 1955
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Seeing that made me understand how profound the drama of opera was and how music theatre is the most powerful audiovisual form there is.
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I still have singing lessons every week twice weekly with the same singing teacher I had at the Royal Academy of Music.
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Whichever route they choose as long as they're doing it seriously and looking after their voices and training then they'll be fine.
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I credit him with getting me started in television,
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I love being blown away by something bigger than myself, like a ship on a stormy sea, and Peter Grimes does that.
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It was really lovely to find another way to express music. I found that singing and dancing have such a lot in common.
ability artist best entertain goals
What's real is your ability to sing, your ability to entertain the public, your goals to be the best artist you can.
criticise personally
I wouldn't want to criticise someone like Charlotte Church because she has done fantastically well, but personally I've always cared about the long term.
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You've got to very much be part of today's society and you've got to use 21st Century techniques to draw attention to what you believe in.
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Last autumn I made a programme about the history of the Strauss family and of the waltz, which involved a trip to the beautiful city of Vienna.
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Just walking along Shaftesbury Avenue gave me such a buzz - it still does - and communicating with an audience through music is still the biggest thrill in the world.
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So between my mother playing two-part inventions by Bach on the piano and my dad singing Ivor Novello, I became what I am today.
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But you mustn't get seduced by the kind of fame that comes with media attention.
born community upbringing
The community that underpinned my upbringing was born from the pits and the steelworks and the railways.