​York-born Lynne Dawson is an acclaimed soprano who has sung on concert platforms and opera stages across the world – and at Princess Diana’s funeral to an audience of billions. After a break from high-profile performing, Tony Greenway meets her as she makes her comeback to the spotlight . . .

Soprano Lynne Dawson, pictured at her home in Tollerton, is looking forward to a return to performing with a series of concerts at various European festivals

When she was young, York-born Lynne Dawson always assumed that she would leave school and become a farmer’s wife.

How wrong can a girl be? In actual fact, Lynne became a world-class soprano, gracing concert platforms and opera stages across the globe.

“My parents were farmers,” she says by way of explanation. “They still are. I used to help my dad, trailing around after him on the farm. So when it came to a career, I always presumed I would do the same sort of job.”

Instead, music came out of left-field – which was something of a shock because she hadn’t studied singing at school, “and,” she admits, “I was too lazy to learn the piano, which I’ve regretted ever since.”

As a teenager, Lynne was into sport in a big way, so you’d always find her on the tennis courts and hockey pitch rather than in the school music room. And while her sister played the violin, Lynne’s parents – while liking music well enough – never went to classical concerts (we imagine that’s changed since) and rarely attended the theatre.

So where did her influences come from?

“I went to Easingwold School which had a strong musical tradition,” says Lynne, “When I was in the lower sixth, they put on a Gilbert and Sullivan production and I was asked to sing the lead. I can’t even remember why that came about now – I don’t know if I auditioned or if the music teacher simply asked me to do it. Either way, because of that, my mum enrolled me in singing lessons in York.”

Even after those first tentative lessons and that sixth-form show, Lynne still didn’t take singing seriously. “I should have gone to university, but didn’t because I was too shy,” she says. “Get that from someone who’s been on stage for the greater part of their adult life!”

Instead, she took a two-year language course and found a job as a translator with chocolate giant Rowntrees (which had factories abroad). Lynne worked at Rowntrees for five years, but music – and fate – sought her out yet again when she joined York Minster’s Chapter House Choir.

Founder and conductor at the time, Andrew Carter, encouraged her to take things further; and thank goodness he did because that was the start of a golden career.

Lynne went on to study at the acclaimed Guildhall School of Music in London, and Britten-Pears School in Suffolk (where one of her tutors was Peter Pears, the partner of Benjamin Britten). She’s since sung with world-leading orchestras and opera companies from Berlin to New York, Paris to London, and Chicago to Sao Paulo; appeared at the Proms, the Saltzburg Music Festival and La Scala, and recorded more than 75 CDs for all the major record labels.

Her conductors include legendary names such as Daniel Barenboirn and Carlo Maria Giulini, her repertoire features Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Haydn and Handel (to name but five), and to note all of her achievements would fill up the rest of this page.

For such a later starter, she’s crammed a lot in.

An important part of Lynne’s career came in 1997 when she performed Libera me from Verdi’s Requiem at Princess Diana’s funeral with the BBC Singers. It’s also the biggest audience she’s ever had because 2.3billion people were watching at the time (you can see her singing it on You Tube).

“I used to sing concerts at Westminster Abbey and the choir director rang me and asked me to do it,” says Lynne. “I’ve since been told that Verdi’s Requiem was the first classical concert that Prince Charles took Diana to – and that she loved it.”

Even someone with Lynne’s unflappable experience must have been nervous on that occasion. “I wasn’t nervous at the funeral itself,” says Lynne. “But I was hideously nervous the day before. I was shaking. But when I came to the rehearsal, I saw that the conductor was very nervous and that helped me. I thought: ‘Well, I can’t be nervous too!’

“There had been all this ridiculous kerfuffle beforehand, but when the service started it was a funeral – a religious service. That got me. And the music got me, too. It’s beautiful.

“I’ve got a lovely postcard on my kitchen wall which was written to Joan Sutherland from Noel Coward. It says: ‘Just get out there and sing – and don’t muck about!’ That’s what I had to do, basically.”

It’s always amazing to hear the voice of a trained singer – and especially a soprano. How can a human being make a sound like that? It’s other-worldly.

“It’s not natural,” agrees Lynne. “It’s been described as ‘controlled shouting’. When I was in Berlin I’d do a lot of Beethoven concerts with Barenboirn and a tenor who was a Wagnerian.

Well, he was only slight and not very tall – but he would open his mouth and you couldn’t hear the orchestra! Then there’s Sir John Tomlinson, the British bass. When he sings, his voice comes up through your feet. It’s amazing.”

Lynne still lives in Easingwold (with her two teenage children, who are both aspiring musicians), having returned 13 years ago after two decades away in London. She has a busy life, teaching in Barcelona, at the University of York, the Royal Northern College of Music and Leeds College of Music.

This year, she was delighted to become president of the York Guildhall Orchestra, and sang with them in York Minster in October.

Singing is hard work, says Lynne. “It’s like being a top-class athlete. If you don’t train, you cant do it; and when you get on to a very high level, you suddenly realise how skilled you’ve become.

“You may be at the top for five minutes or you may be there for years. For me, I was so busy as a concert singer that my operatic career never achieved the same high levels. One lifetime is not enough.”

Six years ago, Lynne made the decision to take a step back from top-level singing. “Actually it was taken for me,” she says. “My marriage broke up and took my voice with it. And then I didn’t want to do it.”

Now, however, her feelings have changed and she wants to do more.

“It’s taken quite a long time for that (feeling) to come back,” she says. “But, actually, what matters to me more is that I CAN still sing. My voice is in good condition, although I can’t sing as high as I used to.

“I don’t want to do high-level things anymore. I don’t want to go onto an opera stage to sing the role of a character who is supposed to be 25. It would look ridiculous. But I can still perform concerts and recitals.”

Which is exactly what Lynne will be doing, shortly. In 2010, she will be appearing in a programme of concerts called Lynne Dawson and Friends, at various European festivals. So look out for her appearing in York, perhaps.

“I want to sing – and I’m having fun,” she says. “It’s the reason to carry on doing it.”