Sally Matthews

Sally Matthews is recognised as one of the foremost lyric sopranos of her generation, her international career encompassing the opera, concert and recital stages, collaborating with many of the world's artists and conductors. 

Sally’s operatic engagements this season include her return to the Glyndebourne Festival as Blanche de la Force in a new production of Dialogues des Carmélites directed by Barrie Kosky; she will return to La Monnaie, Brussels as The Marschallin Der Rosenkavalier and as Tatyana in a new production of Eugene Onegin directed by Laurent Pelly. In concert she will appear with the Dresden Philharmonie and Juanjo Mena in a Mozart and Mahler programme; with the L’Orchestra Symphonique de la Monnaie and Alain Altinoglu in Strauss’s Vier Letze Lieder; with the Orchestra of Opéra de Rouen and Ben Glassberg in Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder and she will return to one of her signature pieces - the title role of Das Paradies und die Peri - with Perry So and the Orquesta Sinfonica di Navarra. 

Recent appearances on the operatic stage include: the title role of Rusalka for the Glyndebourne Festival and with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; Anna Ruthven in Mercadante's Il proscritto with Carlo Rizzi for Opera Rara at The Barbican; Countess Madeleine Capriccio, The Governess The Turn of the Screw and the title roles of Strauss’s Daphne and Bellini’s Norma for La Monnaie; the title role in The Cunning Little Vixen for English National Opera and Elisabetta de Valois Don Carlos for Opéra de Lyon. 

In concert Sally recently made her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Juanjo Mena in excerpts from Barber’s Anthony and Cleopatra – a programme which was also performed at the BBC Proms with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra – other recent appearances include Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder with the Orchestre National de Metz and Marzena Diakun; Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem with LSO and Valery Gergiev and Philharmonie Zuidnederland and Duncan Ward; Beethoven Symphony No 9 with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Mikko Franck; Mahler Symphony No. 4 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Robin Ticciati and she sang the role of Ellen Orford in concert performances of Peter Grimes at the Brisbane Festival and also with Sir Antonio Pappano and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. 

She made her debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2016 singing Silvia in the World Premiere of Adès’ The Exterminating Angel, a role reprised in her debut at the Metropolitan Opera and at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden where other appearances have included Fiordiligi Così fan tutte; Sifare Mitridate; Anne Truelove The Rake’s Progress; the title role of La Calisto and Blanche de la Force in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites. 

Sally made her debut at the Wiener Staatsoper as Donna Anna in a new production of Don Giovanni conducted by Franz Welser Möst, and she has appeared regularly at the Bayerische Staatsoper, in the title role of Jenufa; as Blanche de la Force Dialogues des Carmélites and sang the title role in the World Premiere of Ursuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland. Throughout her career Sally has also appeared regularly at Dutch National Opera; Theater an der Wien and the Glyndebourne Festival. 

She sings regularly with orchestras including the Berliner Philharmoniker, London Symphony and Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic and Bavarian Radio Symphony orchestras with conductors including Sir Antonio Pappano, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Mark Elder, Simone Young, Franz Welser Möst; Daniel Harding and she worked often with both the late Sir Charles Mackerras and Bernard Haitink.