Doncaster's Diva

Back to work today, ewwww...

Never mind, we celebrate the birthday today of the "Diva from Doncaster" Miss Lesley Garrett - the first modern opera diva to do "the crossover", landing her own BBC television show in the late 80s in which she gave the audience a potted history of certain pieces of classical music, then sang them, alongside myriad special guests as diverse as Elaine Paige, Renee Fleming, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Marti Pellow, Michel Legrand, Alison Moyet, Michael Ball, Maxim Vengerov and Ian Bostridge.

Gifted with a natural Yorkshire "down-to-earth" manner as well as a beautiful vocal tone, Miss Garrett is rightly regarded as a "national treasure", and lauded for her place in taking opera to the masses (a trend that has continued ever since with the likes of Katherine Jenkins and Russell Watson, and of course Classic FM today).

Here are some clips of the lady herself, firstly with two very special guests...

Lesley Garrett, Patricia Hodge and Lily Savage - Three Little Maids

Before she discovered grooming, here she holds her own alongside mezzo-soprano Ann Murray singing the traditional Rule Britannia at the Last Night of the Proms in 1990:

Lesley Garrett, Ann Murray - Rule, Britannia

And finally, her solo version of Handel's Tornami a Vagheggiar:

Lesley Garrett - Morgana's aria Tornami a vagheggiar (from Alcina by George Frideric Handel)

Happy Birthday, pet!

Lesley Garrett official website