Emma Matthews

Emma Matthews (née Lysons; born 1970) is an English-born Australian lyric coloratura soprano, noted for operatic roles, but also popular on the concert stage. A Principal Artist with Opera Australia, Matthews has received more Helpmann Awards than any other individual artist, nine Green Room Awards, the Mo Award and the Remy Martin Australian Opera Award.
Life and career.
Born Emma Lysons in Manchester, England, she grew up with three younger sisters in Fiji, where her father worked as a maritime pilot, and Vanuatu before moving to Cairns, Queensland, Port Hedland, Western Australia, and finally Perth. There she attended Perth Modern School before studying musical theatre at the Western Australian Conservatorium of Music (part of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts), but was persuaded by a teacher to switch to opera. She sang with the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Western Australia in 1990. Since her 1991 professional debut with the West Australian Opera and appointment to Opera Australia in 1993, she has appeared in every state of Australia, notably with the State Opera of South Australia, Victorian State Opera and Opera Queensland, in Adelaide, Melbourne as well as frequent appearances at the Huntington Estate Music Festival for Musica Viva from 1994.
She is married to Stephen Matthews, a former chorister and later a stage mechanic with Opera Australia.
Roles.
Her first roles took advantage of her sweet light coloratura voice (capable of a top F6), her good looks, and her acting ability. She has appeared for Opera Australia as:
She has later taken on more challenging roles, often being compared with Joan Sutherland who, with her husband Richard Bonynge, was something of a friend and mentor.
Matthews has also been well received in concerts, with a repertoire from Mozart's Requiem, Haydn Masses, and Handel's "Messiah" to works by Brahms, Poulenc and Villa Lobos, and Mahler's Symphonies No. 2 and No. 4. She appeared with José Carreras in Sydney 2008, then on New Year's Eve in Mozart's "Great Mass in C minor" with Sir Charles Mackerras and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
Screen appearances.
She appeared, billed as Emma Lysons, in the 1995 Alan John opera "The Eighth Wonder" about the Sydney Opera House, broadcast on ABC TV the night following its world premiere.