“I’m ever so excited to be coming to Christchurch!”

Lesley Garrett jumps right in before I can ask if she’s looking forward to her visit to Dorset this month.

“I don’t think I’ve ever performed there before,” she gushes, “I’m really excited about this tour.”

The bubbly soprano will be at the Regent Centre on October 24 as part of her ‘Audience With’ series of shows. While it will mean less singing, more talking, Lesley admits she’s thrilled at the prospect of interacting with theatregoers and promises nothing is off limits.

“I will be in conversation with David Gillard, who I have known for many years,” she says, “he’s a wonderful theatre critic and broadcaster, and we will be talking about my life and all the historical things that have happened to me.

“But also, I will be performing lots of wonderful music that has influenced me and mattered to me, songs that were really important to me during my life and remind me of important events and milestones.

“It’s really personal. But I’m really looking forward to involving the audience. I really want questions and possibly requests from the audience because that’s what I love doing.”

Lesley, a CBE, is arguably Britain’s most popular soprano and has performed with the English and Welsh National Operas, with artists as diverse as Michael Ball and Andrea Bocelli to Lily Savage, appearing on a host of TV shows including Strictly Come Dancing and Loose Women.

As well as 14 solo CDs, she has performances throughout Europe, the USA, Australia, Russia, Brazil, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea under her belt.

But the South Yorkshirewoman admits she is as at home singing on huge, grand stages as she is on smaller, more intimate ones.

“I performed for BBC Songs of Praise, that was a tribute to the Queen for reaching this wonderful milestone. I was singing with the BBC Concert Orchestra and the Prince of Wales Regimental Band and the sound that we made in that space was just out of this world,” she says.

“Some of the orchestras that I work with, it’s just like heaven on a stick. But I’ve played a lot of huge venues and it’s nice to do some smaller, intimate venues.”

The tour, which is a style Lesley first experimented with a couple of years ago, runs until the end of November and she has different interviewers at each venue, to ensure she covers different aspects of her life.

It’s clear she can’t wait to get started.

“I couldn’t have done concerts like this years ago, because I hadn’t done enough,” she explains, “I hadn’t Opera singer Lesley Garrett can’t wait to share her secrets about her career, life and music, she tells Emma Joseph experienced much. But it’s been 35 years now.”

In fact, communicating with her audience is something of a passion for Lesley, who is keen that no one should feel excluded from classical music and opera.

“I’ve diversified,” she says, when I ask why she thinks her career has been such a success.

“I don’t like the phrase ‘niche’, but I’ve tried to involve many audiences, I like to be all inclusive. That has a big part to play– if you’re able to do TV and radio and include people and introduce them to new music.

“I think a lot of people are a bit afraid of opera – they think it’s a bit beyond them. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

Lesley, who admits to still having weekly lessons with her vocal coach of more than 35 years – Australian-born Joy Mammen – is also hugely involved in charity work, with organisations that are in keeping with her all-inclusive ethos.

She takes part in regular fundraising events for Future Talent, a charity run by the Duchess of Kent to support gifted young musicians from low income backgrounds, and is patron for Sheffield charity The Lost Chord, which employs young musicians and singers to perform in care homes for people with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

“The experience for the performers is excellent because if you can hold an Alzheimer’s crowd, you can walk out to any stage in the world and know you can hold that audience,” she explains.

“The difference to people’s lives is astonishing. People can remember the words to an old song and their faces light up when they realise they remember.

“So I’m very involved with young people and development.”

Once the tour comes to an end, Lesley will be straight onto her next job – playing a toilet attendant. It may not be quite as glamorous as parts she’s had in the past, but it’s a role she’s excited to be tackling.

“I’ve been banging the drum about how there should be more roles for older, powerful women in opera, so Opera North has commissioned this opera specially for me, called Pleasure, and I’m playing a toilet attendant,” she laughs. “But I’m thrilled to bits.”

For now, however, Lesley is concentrating on the task at hand and preparing to open up to her audience.

“I’m sharing, it’s my life, my career and my music.”

• An Audience with Lesley Garrett is at the Regent Centre, Christchurch, on Saturday, October 24 Tickets £24, concessions £22. Find out more from lesleygarrett.co.uk or regentcentre.co.uk