DURHAM-born Joanna Burton says she knows it sounds a bit of a clich, but she always wanted to sing. It wasn't until she was in the final of the BBC Choirgirl of the Year at the age of 12 that her family began to take the idea seriously.

Her dad had heard about the competition on the radio. She entered, was put forward by Radio Newcastle and won her way through to the final.

After that, she admits to being economical with the truth about her age to enable her to join Durham County Youth Choir at 15.

She knew she wanted to make a living as a singer but opted not to read music at university because that would have made her studies too narrow. Instead, she took languages, followed by a post-graduate music course at Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

"There are so many different ways of doing it," explains ex-Durham High School pupil Joanna, 29. "I did university and music college, and learnt an awful lot doing British Youth Opera. They were fantastic at giving you opportunities when you needed them. In a pressurised environment like college, it can be a bit like boot camp.

"I always wanted to do opera. It was a question of how my voice developed in terms of the roles I'd be doing. It takes a while for your voice to grow. I started with the lighter things because that's what I could do, and I'll grow into the fuller parts over the next few years."

Joanna is currently on the road with English Touring Opera, which visits Darlington Civic Theatre tomorrow and Wednesday. "It's quite a long tour, but fun," she says.

Burton is singing Echo in Ariadne On Naxos by Richard Strauss, as well as covering as Adele in Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus, both on stage and at some performances in schools. She's already booked for the same company's autumn tour of Handel's Ariodante.

"The operas they've been doing and the roles I've been playing have been right for me," she says. "They are fantastic fun to work for. You're doing lots of shows and going to lots of places, many of them where people aren't used to opera.

"At one performance of Die Fledermaus people in the audience were overheard saying, 'if we don't like this, we can leave after five minutes'- and they stayed for the whole thing."

Home for Joanna and her husband, Richard Hill, is now London. They met at university where he was studying music. He worked as a professional musician before changing career and becoming a lawyer. Touring has not worked out too badly for Joanna as Richard has been away too a lot of the time, working on a case in America.

Before going back to ETO in the autumn, Burton will return to the Almeida in London. She worked at the theatre last Easter on contemporary opera workshops. Now she's been asked back to create a role in a premiere producion in July and August.

* English Touring Opera appears at Darlington Civic Theatre with Ariadne On Naxos tomorrow and Die Fledermaus on Wednesday. Box office 01325 486555