Goderdzi Janelidze Sally Matthews

Sally Matthews was the winner of the 1999 Kathleen Ferrier Award. She studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and went on to become a member of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden Young Artist Programme.

Sally has appeared on many other great opera stages, including La Monnaie, Brussels, Dutch National Opera, Theater an der Wien, the Bayerischer Staatsoper and Glyndebourne Festival Opera in roles including Norma; Madeleine Capriccio, Daphne and Marschallin; Jenufa, Rusalka and Tatyana; Eugene Onegin, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Countess in Le nozze di Figaro as well as Ellen Orford in Peter Grimes

She sings regularly with orchestras including the Philharmonia, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic and Bavarian Radio Symphony with conductors Sir Antonio Pappano, Sir Simon Rattle, Daniel Harding, Robin Ticciati, François-Xavier Roth and Mikko Franck, in works which include Mahler Symphonies Nos 2, 4 and 8, Strauss Vier letzte Lieder, Schumann Paradies und die Peri, Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem, Mendelssohn Lobgesang and Berg Seven Early Songs. She also appears regularly at the BBC Proms.

She has appeared in recital with pianist Simon Lepper in venues including Wigmore Hall, La Monnaie, Brussels, the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and New York’s Carnegie Hall. This is her debut with Opera Rara.

Georgian bass Goderdzi Janelidze is the winner of the First Prize at the 2017 Elena Obraztsova International Competition, the Main Prize and Audience Prize at the 2018 International Fyodor Chalyapin competition and the First Prize and Audience Prize at the 2018 International RimskyKorsakov Competition. He was previously a member of the ensemble at the Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow, where his roles included Monk in Don Carlo, Colline in La bohème, and Brander in La damnation de Faust.

In the 2021-22 season he makes his house debuts at Opéra national de Paris (Sparafucile in Rigoletto) and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden (Old Hebrew in Samson et Dalila).

Recent highlights include Colline in La bohème (his house debut at Gran Teatro del Liceu, Barcelona); Vodnik in Rusalka (Vlaanderen Opera); title role in Don Quichotte (Wexford Festival Opera); Tom in Un ballo in maschera (Teatro Real, Madrid); Sparafucile in Rigoletto (Bregenzer Festspiele, Canadian Opera Company, Teatro Colòn); Prince Gremin in Eugene Onegin (Vancouver Opera); Konchak in Prince Igor (Bolshoi Theatre); Verdi’s Requiem (Teatro Colòn, Berlin Cathedral); and Rossini’s Stabat Mater and Creon in Cherubini’s Medea (Al Bustan Festival, Lebanon). This is his debut with Opera Rara.