Lareen's operatic career began with Glyndebourne Festival Opera in Peter Hall’s production of Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria (Amore) conducted by Raymond Leppard in 1972, and she has since appeared regularly in principal roles with all the leading British opera companies. Her roles including Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, and Lucia (of Lucretia) in Rape of Lucretia for Scottish Opera; Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, Gretel and Vrenchen in Delius’s A Village Romeo and Juliet for English National Opera North; Iphis in Jephtha and Iole in Hercules for the Handel Opera Society; Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier with Sir Charles Mackerras and Gilda in Jonathan Miller’s production of Rigoletto for English National Opera as well as major roles for New Sadler’s Wells Opera, English Music Theatre, Kent opera, New Opera Company and others.

She has performed many of these roles abroad including Gilda with Royal Flemish Opera and Woglinde in Das Rheingold for San Carlo Opera, Naples.

Her concert career includes many appearances on the South Bank and at the Wigmore Hall and she has appeared as a soloist with leading symphony orchestras and eminent conductors in the UK and overseas.

Laureen Livingstone studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and in 1969 won a Sir James Caird Scholarship and a Peter Stuyvesant Scholarship to the London Opera Centre to begin studying with Vera Rozsa.