Emma Matthews

Soprano

Emma Matthews is a highly acclaimed and awarded soprano having received more Helpmann Awards than any other individual artist, nine Green Room Awards, the Mo Award and the Remy Martin Australian Opera Award. She has performed with all the state opera companies and the major Australian symphony orchestras, and at the Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Huntington Festivals, with conductors including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Marko Letonja, Sir Charles Mackerras and Simone Young.

Emma has sung the title roles in Partenope, Lucia di Lammermoor, Lakmé, The Cunning Little Vixen and Lulu. Other roles have included Leila (The Pearlfishers), Amina (La Sonnambula), Philomele (The Love of the Nightingale) by Richard Mills, Ilia (Idomeneo), Juliette (Roméo et Juliette), Marie (La Fille du Regiment), Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare), Konstanze (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Zdenka (Arabella), the four heroines (The Tales of Hoffmann), Pamina (The Magic Flute), Almirena (Rinaldo), Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier), Giulietta (I Capuleti e i Montecchi) and Cunegonde (Candide).

She is equally in demand on the concert platform, embracing a wide repertoire including the Requiems of Mozart, Brahms and Fauré, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, masses by Poulenc, Villa Lobos, Haydn and Mozart, and Handel’s Messiah. Emma has also appeared as a special guest with José Carreras at the Sydney Opera House, and the New Year’s Eve Gala concerts for Opera Australia.

Further career highlights include her Royal Opera House Covent Garden debut in the title role of The Cunning Little Vixen under the baton of Sir Charles Mackerras, performing Mahler’s Symphony no. 4 with Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo conducted by Yakov Kreizberg and with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Vladimir Ashkenazy, and Ismene (Mitridate) for Sydney Festival.

Most recent engagements have included Partenope, Violetta (La Traviata), Fiorilla (Il turco in Italia) and Gilda (Rigoletto) for Opera Australia. Her recent concert appearances have included Eight Poems of Emily Dickinson (Copland) with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (released on disc for MSO Live in March 2014), the ‘Jewel Song’ from Faust by Gounod  and the ‘Mad Scene’ from Hamlet by Thomas, also with the Melbourne Symphony, Ch’io mi scordi di te (Mozart) with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and recitals at Government House Sydney, with Ensemble Liaison and Sydney Omega Ensemble, as well as featuring at Musica Viva’s Huntington Festival, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs’ Christmas concerts and Voices in the Forrest, Canberra.

2015 engagements include the roles of the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute and Donna Anna in Don Giovanni for Opera Australia, Rosina in The Barber of Seville and Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro for West Australian Opera, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl Concert, Carmina Burana with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, a Mozart concert with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Duparc Songs with Simone Young and ANAM Orchestra, and recitals with Ensemble Liaison. 

Emma’s album of bel canto arias, Emma Matthews in Monte Carlo, was released by Deutsche Grammophon / ABC Classics to critical acclaim. Her album of Mozart arias with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Marko Letonja conducting was released by ABC Classics in February 2014.

Emma Matthews is supported by Jennifer Brukner