She began singing major roles such as Azucena in Verdi's Il trovatore, Bizet's Carmen, Mignon by Ambroise Thomas, Waltraute and Erda in the Wagner's Ring cycles and Ortrud in Lohengrin.

She was tempted to tackle soprano parts as well but this expansion upwards of her repertoire did not prove to be an unqualified success due to limitations with her highest notes.

[citation needed] Matzenauer reportedly had an eidetic memory and on 1 January 1912 when, with only a few days' notice, she appeared in the highly demanding role of Kundry in Wagner's Parsifal, an opera she had never sung before.

[1] Tenor Giacomo Lauri Volpi mentioned her in his Voci parallele as one of the only three true contraltos he had encountered throughout his career (the others being Gabriella Besanzoni and Matilde Blanco Sadun).

[1][2] Her daughter was Adrienne Fontana, former nightclub singer and host of variety TV show Champagne and Orchids, on the DuMont Network in early television.