She sang the part of Violetta in La Traviata in an Opera Ireland production at the Gaiety Theatre a few years ago, and I thought she was as good as any of the famous sopranos - a voice so clear, so agile, such range and such quality. It wasn't a great production but, it was agreed, Regina Nathan was outstanding.

How then was it that she did not become one of the leading international sopranos? No records apart from Faith of Our Fathers and a recently released modest disc of her singing accompanied by a piano.

It took months to arrange the interview and eventually we met at Liverpool Street train station in London on Saturday morning last - she's no operatic prima donna. The interview took place in a cafe next door and she got better-looking as the interview went on (something in the coffee?).

She is Malaysian, or half-Malaysian. She was born in Kuala Lumpur and her father was Malaysian, her mother Irish.

Her mother, then a nurse, had met her father, then a law student, in London in the 1950s. They went to Malaysia and were married. They had four children, but the marriage did not work out, and the mother returned to Ireland with the children to her own family home in Terenure.

From an early stage back in Ireland the young Nathans encountered racism. They used to be called "balubas" and other racist names. She yearned not to be different and was glad her mother was not. She went back to Malaysia for the first time five years ago and felt at home there; she didn't look different.

She went to secondary school at the Convent of Mercy in Ballymahon, Co Longford, as a boarder, along with her younger sister, Angela. While there she took part in operettas, where her musical talent first became apparent.

She then went to college in Maynooth, Co Kildare, where she did a degree in music, French and classical studies. There she met a fellow-student, Joe lynch from Ennis, Co Clare. She married him in 1989. He qualified as a teacher and a psychotherapist and works with children with special needs in London.

While in Maynooth she became more immersed in music. "We used to have a choir with Father Noel Watson. He was very supportive all during that time, and I used to go to the College of Music at the same time in Dublin.

"I found the study [at Maynooth] hard. I found the tension of the exams hard. I'm a bit of a dreamer, probably would do it better now than I did then. At least I had some fun in my life. It was a holding experience as somebody said about college, which is true. It gives you a bit of space until you are ready to tackle the world."

She thinks it was 1989 when she got married. She has never remembered her wedding anniversary, to the amusement of her husband. In fact, she is hopeless on dates and on names. She can't remember the names of singers who starred with her in performances, can't remember when the performances took place. "Joe knows all these things."

She acknowledges she is a hopeless organiser and has never managed her career properly. She has had a succession of agents, but relations with them haven't been entirely happy, certainly not entirely productive.

She thinks the difficulty with the "system" may have to do with looking Asian. This is a problem in Britain but not on the Continent. "When I go to Europe, they don't see Asian, they see Italian, but here [in Britain] it is a different matter."