Lesley Garrett is one of Britain’s most popular soprano singers, and in her 36th year of a successful career.

Lesley will be coming to Worthing on October 16 for an evening of song, reminiscences and chat. Her behind-the-scenes stories and anecdotes will give audiences a unique insight into her life and career.

She will be accompanied on piano while singing songs from her extensive back catalogue.

Celebrating four decades of performing, Lesley’s career has spanned the worlds of opera, musicals, television, radio and as a recording artist, making it one of the most successful and idiosyncratic careers of any modern day classically trained soprano.

She has won both critical acclaim and the affection of many fans and music lovers through the breadth and diversity of her work.

“She cares about the people who come to hear her sing,” wrote Hugh Caning in The Times, “and she has established an unusually intimate rapport with her audience. Through her records and her unstuffy attitude to singing, she has clearly reached out to music lovers far beyond the rarified confines of the opera house.”

As well as performing with the English and Welsh National Operas, Lesley has recently starred in Carousel and The Sound of Music and appeared on television shows including Strictly Come Dancing and Loose Women.

She has also performed with artists as diverse as Michael Ball, Renee Fleming, Andrea Bocelli, Bryn Terfel and Lily Savage.

Originally from Yorkshire, Lesley studied at the Royal Academy of Music, and her earliest opera engagements included productions at Glyndebourne, Opera North, and Welsh National Opera. In 1984 she joined English National Opera, starring in many productions.

As a solo artist, Lesley has released 14 albums, Soprano in Red receiving the Gramophone Award for Best-selling Classical Artist of the Year in 1995. Her most recent release is 2015’s Centre Stage: The Musicals Album.

In 2004, Lesley took part in the first series of the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing, where she was partnered with professional dancer Anton Du Beke. They finished in third place.

She has also appeared on the small screen on shows including Lesley Garrett…Tonight, The Lesley Garrett Show, The Singer, and Sacred Songs.

On Millennium Eve, Lesley sang opera and pop classics with Bryan Ferry, The Eurythmics and Mick Hucknall in the grounds of the Royal Observatory and National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, and in 2000 her autobiography Notes From a Small Soprano was published.

In the 2002 New Year’s Honours Lesley was appointed CBE for services to music, and she is also a fellow of the Royal Academy of Music.

On a personal level, Lesley has spoken of her early menopause and use of HRT (hormone replacement therapy), and how this has extended her career as well as that of other women in the business.

She discussed the impact of HRT on her voice in an interview with the Express earlier this year. “Now I’ve turned 60, I’ve recognised there are very few roles written for older sopranos. I began to wonder why and came to the conclusion that traditionally we didn’t exist, partly because after the menopause sopranos lost the tops of their voices – all women’s voices drop.

“But neither myself nor some of my other soprano friends were experiencing that because we were on HRT. When I looked into it with health professionals at the Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital in London, it was confirmed that HRT stops the voice from deteriorating.”

This year, Lesley has starred in the Welsh National Opera’s Chorus, a production that weaves together more than 20 operatic works, played the role of Despina in Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte at Garsington Opera.

Next April, Lesley will star in a new chamber opera, Pleasure, at Opera North, which tells the story of Val (Lesley Garrett), who works as an attendant in the toilets in Pleasure, a hedonistic gay club in the north of England.

• An Audience with Lesley Garrett is at Worthing Pavilion Theatre on October 16, 7.30pm. Tickets are £23.50/£21.50. Phone 01903 206206 or visit worthingtheatres.co.uk.