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)

Over many years as Music Director at Longborough Festival Opera in the UK, Anthony Negus has established himself as a highly perceptive and sensitive conductor of Wagner, exemplified by the highly acclaimed Ring cycles in 2013, Tannhäuser (2016), Tristan und Isolde (2017), Der fliegende Holländer (2018), also The Magic Flute, and Ariadne auf Naxos. In 2017 The London Wagner Society presented him with the Reginald Goodall Award for his devotion to the works of Richard Wagner.

In 2021 Anthony worked at ENO on The Valkyrie (‘Negus’s conducting is as natural as breathing’ – Wagner News). 2022 opened with Die Walküre for Melbourne Opera, followed by four performances of Siegfried for Longborough, and two semi-staged performances of Der fliegende Holländer with Bryn Terfel, Rachel Nicholls, Nicky Spence and Peter Rose for Grange Park Opera. Then it was back to Melbourne in September for an acclaimed concert performance of Siegfried in the Recital Hall. Anthony has now conducted two cycles of Melbourne Opera’s Bendigo Ring in March/April. Following Götterdämmerung for Longborough, Anthony conducted Chelsea Opera Group’s Un ballo in maschera in Cadogan Hall, London in October 2023.

Guest appearances: Lübeck (Parsifal and Holländer); Glyndebourne (Die Meistersinger); Wellington Festival (Parsifal). Highlights of his 35 years with Welsh National Opera were Tristan, The Valkyrie with Goodall, Pelleas with Pierre Boulez and conducting Parsifal. He has conducted more than 150 performances for WNO, especially Mozart.

Anthony read music at Christ Church Oxford, and gained opera conducting experience at the Else Mayer-Lismann Opera Workshop and the London Opera Centre. He studied conducting with Franco Ferrara in Sienna, and George Hurst in the UK. Anthony made his conducting debut in Wuppertal with d’Albert’s Tiefland, and worked at Bayreuth and Hamburg.

Recent and upcoming projects

For Melbourne Opera: Siegfried September 2022, Ring cycle March – April 2023.

For Longborough Festival Opera, Götterdämmerung June 2023, Ring cycle June 2024

“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)