i am what i am

12 sunday life

3. dag day afternoonit soon became clear i was musical, but my school in Vanuatu was quite limited in the arts department. When i was 13 we moved to Cairns, where i started having singing lessons. i was a total dag when i came to australia. i had hairy legs and i got called horrible names because of it. When i eventually shaved my legs, i only shaved the front – i didn’t realise you had to shave the back, too!

4. mrs matthewssoon after i moved to sydney in 1993 and got a job with Opera australia, i met stephen Matthews. He was a tenor and i first saw him in the green room at the Opera House. We started chatting, and when he walked away, i admired his bottom in his jeans! We were married in 1996 at st andrew’s Cathedral. it took six months to decide if i should change my surname from lysons. i really wanted to be emma Matthews and to have the same name that my kids were to have, but some of the older singers said terribly negative things about taking on a married name.

tHis Opera singer’s Career COntinues tO Hit tHe HigH nOtes.

1. too many sistersi was born in Manchester, in the uK, in 1970, but when i was four, my dad got a job as the harbourmaster in suva, fiji. this is me, aged five, holding my second sister, liz. i was thrilled to have another sister, but when my third sister, rebecca, was born, i was disgusted. i had wanted a brother, so i told Mum to put her back in! as harbourmaster in suva, dad would bring in all the big boats. Our house was massive and the deputy prime minister lived next door. Coming from a little town in england, it was a luxurious lifestyle!

2. island lifefiji was lovely, but when i was 11, we left for Vanuatu because of political unrest. this Vanuatu school photo is hilarious! i have a silly grin on my face, huge glasses and a towelling dress [Matthews is at far right]. i look back on this time and think the ni-Vanuatu and the white communities were very separate, but i was lucky – at my school there were only three white girls. We’d sing all the time and the local girls had a natural instinct to harmonise.

5. the sopranodonizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor is my favourite opera and this year i’ll be doing two versions, with Opera australia and with the West australian Opera. it’s a role that uses rapid movements and very high, floaty singing, and shows off the top of my voice. [Matthews is also performing as a guest soloist with the australian youth Orchestra, conducted by simone young, in Brisbane next month.]

6. staying mumearlier this year, i had some time off, so i took the boys [sons Brendan, 7, and Jack,10] down to Kiama on the nsW south coast. We sat on the rocks taking silly photos of each other and just laughed and laughed. it’s one of those memories i will always treasure. i always seem to have music in my head that i have to learn and the pressure of the next gig ahead of me. this was a time when i didn’t have any of that and i could totally be a mum – just how the kids wanted me to be.

family alBumEmma Matthews'

Interview Ruth Kotevich

Scan photo #4 to see more photos of emma Matthews.

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