If you’ve seen soprano Emma Matthews in an opera you will know that her performance lives long in the memory. It’s not just her glorious, limber voice that captures you but her remarkable acting ability. In short she lights up the stage. Witness the Aussie diva’s extraordinary and moving portrayal of Lucia’s madness a few seasons back for Opera Australia, or her vulnerability in La Traviata and comedic flair in Rossini’s Il Turco in Italia, playing superbly off buffo baritone supremo Paolo Bordogna.

This theatrical quality adds immensely to her latest collection of bel canto gems, with ABC Classics following on from her triumphant 2010 Monte Carlo outing on Deutsche Grammophon. Featuring the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra under Andrea Molino, and produced by acclaimed tonmeister Virginia Read, this offering is as good if not better than the yellow label one.

Whereas on the former recording Matthews laid out her entire stall and gave us 21 songs over a generous 76 minutes, the new album offers greater cohesion with interconnected moments from La Traviata, Il Turco and a brace each from Bellini’s La Sonnambula and I Puritani.

It gets off to an effervescent start with Je veux vivre from Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette. This champagne launch with its charming coloratura turns sets the scene nicely for what is to follow – a taste of Donizetti, a substantial dollop of Verdi and some vintage Rossini. Molino and the MSO add a delightful Hitchcockian frisson with Gounod’s Funeral March of a Marionette – older readers may recall it as the theme tune to the director’s TV programme in the early 1960s. 

Matthews wrote recently in Limelight magazine: “It’s the challenge of finding the balance between singing something technically and making it feel genuinely emotional as well.” In this she succeeds brilliantly. Her Sempre libera from La Traviata is gutsy and full of panache. By contrast Violetta’s Addio del passato beautifully conveys the tragic heroine’s farewell to life. Elsewhere, especially in Una voce poco fa from The Barber of Seville, you can, in her own words, “hear the smile in my voice”.

Matthews reckons that she has at least another album’s worth of bel canto jewels up her sleeve. That’s a mouth-watering prospect. Meanwhile Agony and Ecstasy shows that she is still our pre-eminent soprano, even with Nicole Car and Greta Bradman snapping at her heels – and perhaps with that other Richard Bonynge protégée Elena Xanthoudakis waiting in the wings.