Elisabete Matos | |
|---|---|
%2c_cropped.png) Matos in 2021 | |
| Member of the Assembly of the Republic | |
| Assumed office 29 March 2022 | |
| Constituency | Braga |
| Artistic Director ofSão Carlos National Theatre | |
| Assumed office 1 October 2019 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1964-09-06)6 September 1964 (age 60)[1] Caldas das Taipas,Guimarães,Portugal |
Maria Elisabete da Silva Duarte MatosGOIH OIH (born 6 September 1964[1]) is aPortuguesesoprano and politician. In January 2022 she was elected to the PortugueseAssembly of the Republic as a member of theSocialist Party, representing theBraga constituency.[2]
Elisabete Matos was born in 1964[1] inCaldas das Taipas,Guimarães,[3][4][5] Portugal and she began her first musical studies in at the Conservatório de Música Calouste Gulbenkian de Braga. Firstly she started to studyviolin and then singing, alongside.
After she finished the Conservatory, Matos won a scholarship from the renownedCalouste Gulbenkian Foundation which allowed her to finish her studies inMadrid, Spain.
A second place in a European Singing Contest made her be noticed and her international career was launched by the roles of Donna Elvira inMozart's operaDon Giovanni and Alice Ford fromVerdi'sFalstaff at the Hamburg Opera.
Shortly after that, in the year of 1997, she made a triumphal debut in Madrid at the reopening of theTeatro Real as an opera house, interpreting the leading role of Marigaila in the opening ofDivinas Palabras, byAntón García Abril, withPlácido Domingo in the tenor part. Her performance impressed him very much and he invited her to sing with himMassenet'sLe Cid (Chimène) and Dolly fromSly, byErmanno Wolf-Ferrari withJosé Carreras.
After all these successes, Elisabete Matos has sung in many major opera houses around the world, like theGran Teatre del Liceu,La Fenice,Teatro Nacional de São Carlos (Lisbon),Teatro Real,La Scala,Maestranza de Sevilla,Teatro Regio di Torino and theTeatro di San Carlo (Naples). She has made appearances too at the Macerata Festival and the Mérida Festival, Japan,Washington,Chicago and all around Spain.
In 2001, Matos participated in the commemorations of the centenary of Giuseppe Verdi's death, singing again withPlácido Domingo,José Carreras and other names, under the musical direction ofZubin Mehta, in Rome.
In January 2009 she sang the title role ofLa Gioconda in Tokyo for theFujiwara Opera.[6]
Elisabete Matos portrayed Minnie in two performances of Puccini'sLa Fanciulla del West at the Metropolitan Opera during the 2010–2011 season.
In 2019 it was announced that Matos would become the artistic director of Lisbon'sTeatro Nacional de São Carlos.[7]
Alirico-spintosoprano, Elisabete Matos owns a large voice capable of a dramatic intensity with a timbre of sheer beauty. Her most performed composers arePuccini andWagner, but she has also sung the works of many others, counting more than fifty roles in her repertory.
Grand Officer of theOrder of Prince Henry the Navigator (7 June 2013)[8]
Officer of theOrder of Prince Henry the Navigator (8 March 1999)[8]| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
