singing professor History academics aren't usually the type to storm

WHEN it comes to success, there is a little bit of the Mozart syndrome in us all. To achieve fame in anything, there's a school of thought that says you show your ability from an early age, have your bags of promise honed and groomed through your teens, and then launch yourself on to the world stage to an eager and captivated public.

It's a lovely little vision. But when it comes to 37-year-old Ian Bostridge's life, it should be ripped up into tiny pieces. Bostridge is its antithesis. He studied philosophy and history at Cambridge and Oxford, has worked as a TV researcher, re-entered academia and only six years ago - without any real training - decided to take the plunge into the world of full-time singing.

Since then, he has enjoyed an almost fairytale rise up the classical pecking order.

Yet, as his latest EMI recording - Schubert Lieder Volume II - reveals, his success has been built on the back of an extraordinary natural talent that belies his relatively short career. The CD shows that his repertoire reaches far beyond the boundaries of old Blighty - something which should keep him on EMI's books when it comes to renegotiating his contract in the not too distant future.

"When I sing in German, the music I am singing is part of a German tradition and I enjoy the fact that people think I am German when I perform it."

This versatility is Bostridge's strong point, but perhaps what attracts those outside classical music's inner circle is his experience of life. And part of that experience is knowing when to work and when to rest.

"This is supposed to be a quiet time," he says. "I suppose for singers there isn't a break in a season as there are so many things going on. By the start of the [Edinburgh International] Festival I will have had five weeks without a concert, which is good because it is the height of the hayfever season and I can suffer badly. When I first started singing it could get a bit hairy because I could get wheezy breathing."

Bostridge enjoys coming to Edinburgh and this year is no different, with performances of Britten Canticles and Idomeneo - "My best man lives in Edinburgh and I always stay with him and have a very jolly time," he says. Certainly the festival was one of the factors which set him on his current path. "I first came to the festival to perform in my first professional opera date. And it was the straw that broke the camel's back as far as my academic career was concerned. I realised that singing was all-consuming."

Bostridge may have chosen singing, but his academic life still attracts interest - something he tolerates rather than openly courts. But the flames of public recognition will be fanned after tonight's South Bank show.

"I am a bit nervous," he says of the programme. "I'm really not sure what it is going to be like. A lot of the programme contains proper performance, and I was mainly accompanied only by piano. I felt I needed to be incredibly controlled. Television requires a more low-key performance style."

However, Bostridge recognises that he found his match in the show's presenter, Lord Bragg.

"Melvin Bragg was very impressive, not only because of his knowledge of the music but also of my life as a historian. He had read up on my work and it sometimes felt as if I was back having my thesis exam."

Bostridge is a recognised authority in a number of fields, not least Britain's obsession with witchcraft in the 17th and 18th centuries. His book, Witchcraft And Its Transformations 1650-1750, was published in 1997.

Bostridge's take on witchcraft and its influences has some surprising resonance with today's devolved Scotland and its relationship with its southern neighbour - as the arguments surrounding the issue of witchcraft happened around the time of the Act of Union.

"Scottish witch prosecutions were a big issue in Anglo-Scottish relations and many of the Calvanists thought that London had really lost the plot."

Bostridge could probably enthuse much more, but he is rather hesitant, as if he is gaining a notoriety for something which is detracting from the job in hand - making music.

Yet it is this - as well as his voice - which helps Bostridge rise above the image of classical drone and connect with a public which may not have heard him. And for those who have, this year's festival cannot come soon enough.

The South Bank Show is on ITV tonight at 11.15pm; Schubert Lieder Volume II is out tomorrow. Bostridge plays Edinburgh's Usher Hall on August 26

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