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Barbara auditioned for the Company. She was invited to join as a principal soprano. The only twist in the story is that the invitation came almost exactly three years after the first audition!
She comes from Saltburn in Yorkshire and her first public performances were in the children's choir of the local Methodist church. "We used to do the special children's Eisteddfods in those days."
She studied at the Guildhall School of Music where one of her fellow students was Fraser Goulding. She did her audition with the company when she still had a further year to complete at the school.
She started work as a freelance opera singer. She sang with the Phoenix Opera, in the English National Opera, and the Opera Rara at the Camden Festival, with concerts and oratorios thrown in for good measure.
She appeared with Peter Lyon in the highly acclaimed pantomime "Beauty and the Beast" performed in the 1973/74 season at the Players Theatre in true Victorian style under the arches of Charing Cross. They were married on the final day of that show.
"I had to think very hard when the D'Oyly Carte offer came," she says. "Because it was only for me - it didn't include Peter. By that time we had been married for over a year and we knew that a lot of touring would be involved. But we both decided that I had to do it. In fact, I went on both the US tours before Peter joined the Company. But we did the tour of Australia together and that was marvellous."
Before Barbara joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, she had never seen a Gilbert and Sullivan opera, but she learned very quickly. She appeared in most of the operas,"including a performance of "Trial by Jury" at the Middle Temple in the presence of the Queen Mother."
Barbara Lilley, born in Saltburn, Yorkshire, was with the company from 1975 to 1981 and played Aline, Josephine, Mabel, Patience, Phyllis, Princess Ida, Yum-Yum, Elsie Maynard and |Gianetta.
She enjoyed every role, but nonetheless she had a little extra affection for Yum Yum
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