Chloe Wright is no prima-donna and can't stand people who moan.

The Tony Award-winner has enjoyed being dressed in Prada for premiers, but now finds herself picking up props and organising rehearsal times herself, but you won't hear a groan out of this opera singer.

She's lived in New York and LA and been "treated like a film star", but is now back in Britain without directors and producers at her heels. Instead she tells herself what to do.

Having scooped a Tony Award for Excellence in Theatre, Chloe moved from New York to California and then back to Britain where, a year ago, she set up the singing trio Diamond Divas with fellow performers Caroline Childe and Matilde Wallevik.

Two years previously and on the other side of the Atlantic, Chloe, from Westcliff, had been playing the part of Musetta in a Baz Luhrmann production of La Boheme on Broadway.

It was this role which landed her the Tony. She says: "It was the most incredible job, we were treated like film stars, we were dressed for the premier and taught how to pose. I thought that was about as good as it gets."

Things didn't go as planned with the show, though, and Chloe came to realise a glamorous life is an expensive one.

"The show was supposed to come to England and then it didn't, so we were all on hold for that and then got released.

"I'd love to live in New York, but only if I was working - it's so expensive."

The sun beckond and Chloe, along with her boyfriend, who is now her husband, and technical manager David Danby, moved to LA, where even the superficial nature of many of its A-list residents didn't get her down.

"Everybody was moaning about it but I was living on the beach and I'd wake up every morning and think I can't moan'," she remembers.

She's still not moaning on a dull afternoon in England as her mobile phone rings with a query about when she's picking up a costume for her next show with the Diamond Divas.

"I'm a jobbing opera singer, but it's great. You take the rough with the smooth," shrugs the 33-year-old.

Chloe set up the trio on her return to the UK and this month the company marks its first anniversary.

As part of their celebrations the divas are holding an evening of music featuring operatic arias, show songs and old fashioned festive favourites at the Mill Arts and Events Centre in Rayleigh on Tuesday, December 19.

"This time last year we did a try-out in a little church in Westcliff. We sold over 120 tickets and everybody loved it," says Chloe, a former pupil at Westcliff High School for Girls.

"This year we've been forging ahead and it's been one hell of an eye opener. As a singer you're told what to do by everyone, but suddenly I'm running a company. It's nice, but hard work.

"I wanted to have more control over what I was involved in. I don't want to go on a tour where we have rehearsed for a week-and-a- half. I don't want to feel apologetic for something.

"Because we're like three best mates, the performance side works well. With classical it's usually so formal, but with this it isn't.

There's this naughty atmosphere because we're loving it and we're good at what we're doing."

Tickets for the Diamond Divas' Christmas Cracker cost £12.