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 study violin and then singing, alongside.
After she finished the Conservatory, Matos won a scholarship from the renowned Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation which allowed her to finish her studies in Madrid, 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 in Mozart's opera Don Giovanni and Alice Ford from Verdi's Falstaff at the Hamburg Opera.
Shortly after that, in the year of 1997, she made a triumphal debut in Madrid at the reopening of the Teatro Real as an opera house, interpreting the leading role of Marigaila in the opening of Divinas Palabras, by Antón García Abril, with Plácido Domingo in the tenor part. Her performance impressed him very much and he invited her to sing with him Massenet's Le Cid (Chimène) and Dolly from Sly, by Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari with José Carreras.
Elisabete Matos in La Fanciulla del West in December 2010
In 2001, Matos participated in the commemorations of the centenary of Giuseppe Verdi's death, singing again with Plácido Domingo, José Carreras and other names, under the musical direction of Zubin Mehta, in Rome.
Alirico-spintosoprano, Elisabete Matos owns a large voice capable of a dramatic intensity with a timbre of sheer beauty. Her most performed composers are Puccini and Wagner, but she has also sung the works of many others, counting more than fifty roles in her repertory.
La Dolores (Tomás Bretón), with Elisabete Matos, Plácido Domingo, Tito Beltrán, Conductor Antoni Ros Marbá, DECCA (winner of the 2000 Latin Grammy for Best Classical Album)
Requiem (Suppé), with Elisabete Matos, César Hernández, Giorgio Cebrian and the Orchestra and Corus of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Conductor Michel Corboz VIRGIN
Les Troyens (Berlioz), with Elisabete matos (Cassandre), Lance Ryan (Énée), Daniele Barcellona (Didon), Gabriele Viviani (Chorèbe), Cor de la Generalitat Valenciana, Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana, conducted by Valery Gergiev, stage Director Corlus Podrisso. DVD Unitel Classica 2010 - 2011.
Grand Officer of the Order of Prince Henry the Navigator (7 June 2013)[8]
Officer of the Order of Prince Henry the Navigator (8 March 1999)[8]
