As a freelance director, Matthew has directed new work in Australia and overseas. His 2021 production of Carmen toured Australia to glowing reviews “Opera Australia has hit the jackpot” Australian Arts Review; “Barclay’s evocative mid-20th century transposition is a revving good fit, energetically choreographed… Barclay’s choreography swirls and ignites just about every surface” Limelight Magazine, “the production set in the 1950s loses none of its power due to the very clear story-telling, fluid staging and depth of character, Barclay has produced a fine show” Canberra Critic’s Circle.

He teamed up with designer Hui Chen to create three new productions for Kaohsiung Spring Arts Festival in Taiwan - Puccini's La bohème featuring Inna Dukach and Massimo Giordano, and Bizet's Carmen featuring Kirsten Chavez and Riccardo Massi, and for the 2022 festival Madama Butterfly featuring Lin Ling-hui and Richard Troxell, with Maestro Chih-chin Yang and the Kaohsiung Symphony Orchestra.

For the 2022 Sydney Festival he directed Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine as cinematic opera starring Lorina Gore. For the Hennessy Concert Series in Vietnam he directed a new production of Puccini's La bohème at the Hanoi Opera House, touring a cast of Australian singers.  For Places + Spaces / Operasmith & Co. with the Sirius Chamber Ensemble, he directed William Walton & Edith Sitwell's Facade: An Entertainment starring Silvia Colloca and Simon Lobelson at the beautifully restored Glebe Town Hall.

Matthew has directed several productions for iSING! International Young Artists Festival in China, including Chinese Songs and Gianni Schicchi at the Suzhou Grand Theater and Jiangsu Grand Theatre in Nanjing.  Gianni Schicchi became the first fully staged opera production to be presented at the newly-opened Jiangsu Grand Theatre complex.

He served as Opera Australia’s Senior Resident Director and Dance Supervisor between 1997 and 2020, directing and choreographing on over forty productions in revival at the Sydney Opera House and The Arts Centre, Melbourne.

For Opera Australia, Matthew directed and choreographed Mozart's The Magic Flute based on Julie Taymor's original Metropolitan Opera production for audiences young and old in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.  Other notable work includes staging productions of Britten’s Albert Herring, Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges, Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Syzmanowski's King Roger and McVicar’s production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Luca Michieletti as the despicable love-hero.  For West Australian Opera's 50th Anniversary year he staged a revival of Verdi's Lucia di Lammermoor featuring Emma Pearson in the title role.

For Pittsburgh Opera, Matthew was invited to direct Opera Australia's production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly and the following year at Opéra de Montréal working with conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin.  For Taiwan’s National Symphony Orchestra he directed the Royal Opera House production of Carmen featuring Kirstin Chavez and Richard Troxell.  For New Zealand Opera he directed Pene Pati in Simon Phillips’ irresistible staging of The Elixir of Love. At the Macau International Music Festival he directed Verdi’s Il trovatore and travelled to Beijing to direct an Opera Australia presentation as part of the Meet in Beijing Arts Festival.

For Australian state companies, Matthew has directed Faust, Il trovatore, Don Giovanni and Lucia di Lammermoor for West Australian Opera; L'elisir d'amore, Madama Butterfly, Don Giovanni and Carmen for the State Opera of South Australia, Julius Caesar and Carmen for Opera Queensland.

Working with postgraduate students at Sydney Conservatorium, he directed a new production of Don Giovanni in 2018 for the #metoo movement, following his earlier Die Fledermaus for the same program.  For Victorian College of Arts Opera he directed The Eleventh Hour, an original adaptation of Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito.

French opera includes directing Francesca Zambello's production of Carmen for Opera Australia in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane; as well as productions of Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles, Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann and Berlioz' Beatrice and Benedict.

His interest in baroque music was developed by way of association with Francisco Negrin's landmark production of Handel's Giulio Cesare in Sydney in 1994, that took Matthew to Los Angeles Opera as Associate Director and Choreographer. He has worked on Monteverdi's Il coronanazione di Poppea and Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito, Idomeneo, Die Zauberflöte and Cosi fan tutte at Opera Australia.

Matthew was part of the original creative team led by Moffatt Oxenbould that brought an award-winning production of Madama Butterfly to the Sydney Opera House in 1996 as Choreographer and Assistant Director.  He worked as part of the same team on Puccini's La bohème with soprano Cheryl Barker as Mimi, followed by Verdi's Simon Boccanegra for the Sydney Olympic Arts Festival, starring Elena Prokina and Jonathan Summers.  Other Verdi works include directing revivals of Simon Boccanegra, Il trovatore and Elijah Moshinsky's enduring production of La traviata.  In 2014, Matthew staged the La Fura del Baus production of Verdi's Un ballo in maschera at The Arts Centre, Melbourne, directing Csilla Boross to a Green Room Award winning performance in the role of Amelia.

He took over the direction of Goran Järvefelt's production of Don Giovanni, for several years directing Teddy Tahu Rhodes to popular success in the title role. His credits as assistant director for Opera Australia include Verdi’s Aida, Puccini’s Turandot, Weber's Der Freischütz, Lehar's Die Lustige Witwe, Wagner’s Tannhaüser and Die Meistersinger von Nürnburg, Haddock’s Madeleine Lee and Brett Dean’s Bliss that toured to the Edinburgh Festival in 2010.

Other highlights include assisting Francesca Zambello with a large-scale production of Show Boat at Royal Albert Hall, London.

He produced and directed two consecutive presentations of The Australian Dance Awards, a major national event celebrating achievement in dance.

In management, Matthew served four years on the board of The Song Company, Australia’s leading a cappella ensemble under the artistic leadership of Roland Peelman.  He is currently on the board of Sydney’s Pacific Opera, led by co-artistic directors Peter Coleman-Wright and Cheryl Barker. He is also Board Chair of Places + Spaces, a not-for-profit company producing arts events and programs within the music sector of NSW with the aim of improving arts infrastructure, audiences and opportunities for musicians.  Matthew is presently Artistic Advisor (Artist-in-Residence) at Sydney Catholic Schools, he is a graduate in arts management from Deakin University's Bowater School of Management, and studied Italian language at Università per Stranieri, Perugia, Italy.