Anthony Negus studied clarinet and piano at the Royal College of Music London, and gained a music degree at Oxford University. He also joined the newly formed Else Mayer- Lismann Opera Workshop, where he was able to develop his passion for opera, both playing and conducting. He was for severa years a musical assistant in Wuppertal, and in Bayreuth working with Erich Leinsdorf, Heinrich Hollreiser (Tannhauser), Horst Stein (Ring), and Eugen Jochum (Parsifal).
Following a period with Hamburg State Opera, he joined the Welsh National Opera(WNO) music staff. As a conductor there, he built up a wide repertoire of operas including Beethoven (both Leonore and Fidelio), Gluck, Mozart, Richard Strauss (Elektra, Ariadne, Die Frau ohne Schatten). It was his work with Music Director Sir Charles Mackerras in particular that led to his emergence as a vital and sensitive conductor of Mozart, all of whose major operas from Idomeneo to Tito and Die Zauberflote he has conducted.
Working with the legendary Wagnerian conductor and coach Sir Reginald Goodall in the 1970’s and 80’s was a formative and highly influentional period which led to his conducting Parsifal and Tristan und Isolde; and then assisting Sir Richard Armstrong, Rheingold, Siegfried and Gotterdammerung; also Janacek, Martinu, Alban Berg Wozzeck, and James MacMillan The Sacrifice for a BBC Broadcast issued on CD by Chandos.
He has conducted Parsifal for the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in Wellington, and in Luebeck, Germany; after working with Vladimir Jurowski, Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg for Glyndebourne. More recently, he conducted Le Nozze di Figaro for WNO; and in 2016 Alban Berg Lulu for Bolzano Italy, as well as a Welsh L’Elisir d’Amore for Opra Cymru, and Bizet Carmen for Lyric Opera Dublin.
His concert repertoire includes Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schubert, R.Strauss, Weber, Gershwin, Copeland, and Charles Ives, and aspires to the major symphonic works of Brahms, Bruckner and Mahler.
Over many years as Music Director of Longborough Festival Opera, he has established himself as one of the most perceptive and original conductors of the Wagner repertoire, culminating in the highly acclaimed Ring Cycle in 2013, followed by Tristan und Isolde, Tannhauser, and Die Zauberfloete. The 2017 revival of Tristan und Isolde prompted unprecedented critical and audience acclaim.
In the 2017/18 season he returns to Luebeck for Der fliegende Hollander, prior to conducting Hollander and R.Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos for Longbrough 2018.
