Born in Buckingham, Anthony Negus studied at the Royal College of Music, London Opera Centre and Christ Church College, Oxford.
A member of the Music staff in Wuppertal and Hamburg from 1970-74 and musical assistant at Bayreuth 1972-73. He Joined Welsh National Opera in 1976.
As a Wagner enthusiast from his youth he assisted Reggie Goodall on Die Walküre, Tristan und Isolde, Parsifal (also the recordings) and Richard Armstrong on Der Ring des Nibelungen.
For WNO between 1982-86 he conducted Parsifal, Das Rheingold, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung, Fidelio, The Magic Flute and The Greek Passion.
From 1987, Anthony assisted Sir Charles Mackerras and conducted performances of Le nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte, Seraglio, Idomeneo, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Iphigénie en Tauride and Der Freischütz.
In 1992 he assisted Pierre Boulez on Pelléas et Mélisande and conducted performances of Elektra and Tristan und Isolde.
For the Welsh College of Music and Drama (1991-8) he has conducted Albert Herring, The Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute and Suor Angelica.
Most recently for WNO Anthony has conducted The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, La clemenza di Tito, Leonore, Parsifal, Katya Kabanova and Ariadne auf Naxos.
At the Longborough Festival he conducted the Ring Cycle (CBTO version) in 2002 and again in 2004 with Sir Donald McIntyre as Wotan. He also conducted the same version for Pittsburgh Opera in Summer 2005 and 2006 , directed by Jonathan Eaton. In March 2006 he conducted Parsifal with McIntyre and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra for Welling Festival, New Zealand. In 2009’s Glyndebourne Festival he assisted Vladimir Jurowski in the legendary Nikolaus Lehnoff production of Tristan und Isolde.
Future plans are to build a full Ring Cycle at Longborough, which started with Das Rheingold in June 2007 and continues with Die Walkure in 2010. In the 2009-10 season he will be conducting Wozzeck for WNO and assisting Valeri Gergiev in concert performances of Elektra at the Barbican Centre.
