Welcome to my shiny new, revamped website! It’s still work in progress but we’re getting there. At last Covid is on its way out and we’re on our way back! Pretty soon theatres around the country will be throwing open their doors, grateful artists will be once more strutting their stuff and thirsty (inoculated!) audiences will be lapping it up! This is going to be the most wonderful renaissance for British Theatre and the Entertainment industry and I am determined to be a part of it.

I hope you’ve all managed to keep healthy, well and busy during the various National lockdowns. I’ve been up to all sorts (you know me!) and I am hoping to share with you some of my lockdown adventures in future Garrett’s Gossips. I really hope I’m going to see you at my forthcoming events where I’ll be able to catch up with what you’ve been doing.

As some of you may know, last year was my 40th anniversary as a professional soprano. It all began back in 1980 when I was lucky enough to make my professional debut in the Wexford Festival playing the role of Dorinda in Handel’s Orlando and I’ve never been out of work since. I had the most wonderful anniversary tour planned, as well as appearances in operas at the Buxton Festival and with Opera North. All of this, of course, had to be postponed.

My management team, headed by my long-suffering managing agent Lawrence Kershaw, are working hard to reinstate as much of this work as possible over the course of this year and in 2022. I’m renaming our tour the Shot-in-the Arm Tour (for obvious reasons!) and it’s going to feature a completely new programme, spread out over the next 12 months, starting on June 6 in Yeovil. Please keep checking the Events page for up-to-date information.

In the meantime, I am determined to celebrate my special 40th anniversary. I’m making a photographic retrospective some of the wonderful productions, concerts and events I’ve been fortunate enough to take part in over the years. Be warned, some of the photos may need a public health warning!

But the thing I’m most excited about is that on this new, post- lockdown website I finally get my very own page where I can talk to you in person! This is where you will find Garrett‘s Gossip, where I’ll be able to tell you all about what’s been happening to me personally as well as professionally. I might even take the opportunity to tell you what I think about a few things! You can connect to my Twitter account, which is also being renewed. Here you’ll be able to send me messages and hopefully, if I can work out the technology, I will be able to reply!

So lots to look forward to. I can’t wait to get my voice out of its box and back on the stage! My husband Peter says it’s been like living with a racehorse, stuck in starting stalls that won’t open!

Bye for now!

Lesley