Anthony Negus

Conductor

“Anthony Negus, simply one of the finest Wagner conductors around. Negus knows and articulates the emotional meaning of every note in this vast score”

iNews (Götterdämmerung 2023)

Anthony Negus is one of the leading Wagnerian conductors of our day, the Music Director of Longborough Festival Opera (LFO) where in 2024 he conducted three enthusiastically received cycles of Der Ring des Nibelungen and Die Walküre (all directed by Amy Lane). The Ring was the culmination of a five-year project. With LFO, he has established himself as one of the most perceptive and original conductors of the Wagner repertoire, giving acclaimed performances of the 2013 full Ring Cycle (directed by Alan Privett), the culmination of a 5year project), Tannhäuser (also directed by Privett), Tristan und Isolde (directed by Carmen Jakobi) and Der fliegende Holländer; Die Zauberflöte, Ariadne auf Naxos. The 2017 revival of Tristan und Isolde met with especial critical and audience acclaim. The London Wagner Society awarded Anthony Negus the Goodall Award for ‘his devotion to the works of Richard Wagner’.

Performances for Melbourne Opera (MO): four hugely successful performances of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in 2025 (directed by Suzanne Chaundy) at the Royal Exhibition Building; 2023 two highly acclaimed Ring Cycles for MO (directed by Chaundy). 2022 Siegfried, Die Walküre, 2021 Rheingold, 2020 Fidelio, 2019 Der fliegende Holländer, 2018 Tristan und Isolde for which he won the coveted Green Room Award for best conductor.

Elsewhere Der fliegende Holländer for the St. Endellion Festival, Un ballo in maschera for Chelsea Opera Group, Der fliegende Holländer for Grange Park Opera with Sir Bryn Terfel and Rachel Nicholls, a guest performance of Die Walküre for ENO; Lulu for the Fondazione Haydn di Bolzano e Trento, Italy; Beethoven with the George Enescu Orchestra in Bucharest; Parsifal, Der fliegende Holländer in Lübeck.; a performance of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for Glyndebourne Festival; Parsifal with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra at the Wellington Festival.

For Welsh National Opera he has conducted more than 150 performances, including works by Beethoven, Berg, Gluck, Janáček, James MacMillan (The Sacrifice, broadcast by the BBC), Martinů, Mussorgsky, Richard Strauss, Wagner, Weber and, especially, Mozart. Particular highlights of his work with WNO have included Parsifal and several of Richard Strauss’s operas. He assisted Pierre Boulez on Pelléas et Mélisande, and Sir Reginald Goodall on Tristan und Isolde, Parsifal and The Valkyrie.

FUTURE PROJECTS FOR LONGBOROUGH FESTIVAL OPERA:Tristan und Isolde 2026, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg 2027

FUTURE PROJECTS FOR MELBOURNE OPERA include Parsifal in 2026

“The underpinning achievement of conductor Anthony Negus and his orchestra is simply amazing”

The Telegraph (Götterdämmerung 2023)

“Anthony Negus sustained impressive dramatic tension and rhythmic crispness”

Opera magazine (Götterdämmerung 2023)

“Primarily the remarkable achievement of conductor Anthony Negus, undoubted lord of this Ring. His authority and understanding permeate every bar”

The Guardian (Götterdämmerung 2023)

“As always with Wagner at Longborough, the driving force is the veteran conductor Anthony Negus, whose energetic propulsion of Götterdämmerung’s vast score is masterful”

The Times (Götterdämmerung 2023)