Praise for Tristan und Isolde 2026, Longborough Festival Opera

  • “Aficionados talk about Anthony Negus in hushed tones…As Music Director at Longborough since 2000, he put the festival on the map, including acclaimed Ring cycles, earning it the moniker ‘the Bayreuth of the Cotswolds’”

    – Bachtrack, 3 July 2026

  • “In his 26th and final season as music director at Longborough, conductor Anthony Negus draws inspired playing from his orchestra, imposing a cohesive shape over the sprawling whole”

    – The Stage, 22 June 2026

  • “It was the whole conception that really gripped you; the feeling that words, images and Negus’s soul-shaking conducting were all working upon each other to create the total and overwhelming drama that Wagner envisioned. Longborough is famous for its Ring cycles but there’s a reason why serious Wagnerites go starry-eyed when you mention their Tristan”

    – The Spectator, 11 July 2026

  • “Anthony Negus, Longborough’s music director who has just been appointed a CBE in The King’s Birthday Honours List, was clearly the driving force…Negus’ insights manifested themselves in more than just the conducting...Throughout the orchestral playing was detailed and precise, while still conveying an overall sense of infinite flow”

    – MusicOMH, 23 June 2026

  • “Once again, Anthony Negus’ command of the ebb and flow of Wagner’s extraordinary score is exemplary. The long silence in the audience at curtain down – before a storm of applause – was a fitting tribute to a memorable performance”

    – Plays to See, 21 June 2026

  • “a glorious event, many in the audience standing to applaud the remarkable staying-power of Negus. He knows exactly when to power up the orchestra and when the subtler moments are needed; his charges in the pit responded wonderfully”

    – Seen and Heard International, 22 June 2026

  • “a conductor who is fully capable of realising Wagner’s musical vision”

    – The Article, July 2026

  • “conducted by devout Wagnerian Anthony Negus, it involves us in the drama more intensely than any other production I have ever attended”

    – Oxford Prospect Arts, July 2026

  • “Few conductors alive possess such instinctive understanding of Wagner's architecture, and fewer still are prepared to let the score unfold with such patience. Tempi breathed naturally; climaxes arrived because they had to, not because the conductor wanted applause. The Prelude shimmered with unbearable expectation, the Act II love duet expanded with glorious inevitability, while the desolation of Act III never lost its cumulative momentum. Throughout, the Longborough Festival Orchestra responded magnificently, producing playing of remarkable transparency and warmth”

    – Opera Spy, 27 July 2026

  • “From the opening notes of the prelude it was clear that Anthony Negus and the orchestra brought both shape and direction to the music. Negus never made the mistake of getting lost in the beauties of individual phrases, this was about whole paragraphs with the end of each act clearly in sight at the beginning...In the pit, Anthony Negus and the orchestra were very much as one…this was a Tristan und Isolde where you felt every gesture was thought through and meant something”

    – Planet Hugill, 11 July 2026

  • “Anthony Negus' mastery - no, supremacy - as a Wagner conductor (since being steeped in the wisdom of Reginald Goodall) has been evident time and again at Longborough where he has been, above all, a stupendous interpreter of The Ring cycle, revealing with magnificent insight, incredible judgement and penetrating comprehension. Such is his handling of Tristan that perhaps one might suggest this is his finest of them all”

    – Classical Music Daily, 7 July 2026

Praise for Pelléas et Mélisande 2025, Longborough Festival Opera

  • “Negus is in many ways an ideal interpreter of Debussy's Wagner-saturated opera, his ear for orchestral detail and nuance if anything making the work more cognitively demanding than usual, with the endlessly changing harmonies and orchestral textures sharper than ever”

    – Opera magazine

  • “the highest accolades of all go to conductor Anthony Negus whose interpretation of Claude Debussy’s enigmatic score brings every phrase, colour and detail into sharp focus, with the result being nothing short of a completely compelling experience”

    – MusicOMH

  • “Conductor Anthony Negus underlined the brooding score’s deeper recesses and the elusive, watery character of the music”

    – Opera Canada

  • “Anthony Negus brings out the beauty and originality of Debussy’s sound world”

    – The Stage

Praise for Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg 2025, Melbourne Opera

  • “Anthony Negus drew a very warm tone from the Melbourne Opera orchestra, who played even better than they had done for the Ring. His support of his singers, and in particular his coordination of the complex ensemble and chorus scenes was exemplary. He brought out not only the intense emotion of the Act III Prelude, but also the sheer joy of the final scene. The improvement in the orchestra since Negus started coming regularly has been extraordinary”

    – Opera magazine

Praise for Der Ring des Nibelungen 2024, Longborough Festival Opera

  • “Much has been written about Anthony Negus and his special relationship with Wagner. Having heard him conduct a complete Ring for the first time I can say the plaudits are entirely justified”

    – Wagner Journal

  • “Anthony Negus, one of today's supreme Wagnerians: he paces the music magnificently, bringing out its sheer thrill and wonder. What a treat it is to hear him”

    – iNews

  • “His immersion in Wagner’s operas and two decades of conducting them at Longborough has provided one of Britain’s most authoritative and respected exponents”

    – Opera Today

  • “The hero of this production, however, is Negus, a veteran conductor who has developed a cult following for his mastery of Wagner”

    – Classical Voice America

  • “it is a small miracle for which the main credit must go to conductor Anthony Negus. He gave coherence to the whole and great clarity to the musical detail, while encouraging superb performances from the singers”

    – The Article

  • “Conductor Anthony Negus is clearly the soul of this project. His decades of experience with Wagner’s music shone through in every bar, his readings expansive and generous”

    – Opera Now

  • “in the hands of conductor Anthony Negus, details were handled with a deft and consistently persuasive touch”

    – Bachtrack

  • “Negus's gift, as well as training singers to perform Wagner, is to judge the pacing of this music, moving it forward but never driving it too hard”

    – Observer

Praise for Götterdämmerung 2023, Longborough Festival Opera

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

    – The Guardian

  • “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

  • “The underpinning achievement of conductor Anthony Negus and his orchestra is simply amazing, strongly sustained, yet driving the rhythms forward with sharp-edged articulation and clarity”

    – The Telegraph

  • “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

  • “Anthony Negus sustained impressive dramatic tension and rhythmic crispness”

    – Opera magazine

  • “Anthony Negus more than ever on top of strongly cast Wagner”

    – Bachtrack

  • “It is Anthony Negus’s sterling control of the score and his players that commands the utmost admiration. His attention to detail, acute ear for balance and an unerring feeling for tempi are brilliantly judged time and again”

    – Opera Today

  • “Anthony Negus is in as sure command as ever, and it is the act of hearing such accomplished orchestral playing in the most intimate of settings that makes this experience feel particularly overwhelming”

    – MusicOMH

Praise for Siegfried 2022, Longborough Festival Opera

  • “Negus sustains the logic, draws wonderfully vivid textures from the orchestra”

    – The Telegraph

  • “Anthony Negus bringing out delicacies in the score”

    – The Guardian

  • “Anthony Negus conducts with a masterly control of pace and balance. And much of the orchestral playing is spinetingling”

    – The Times

  • “There was brilliance, too, both in Anthony Negus’s majestic account of the score with a Longborough Festival Orchestra of unreasonably high quality”

    – Opera magazine

  • “one of the finest Wagnerian conductors in Britain today”

    – Opera today

  • “Anthony Negus more than ever on top of strongly cast Wagner”

    – Arts Desk

  • “one of the most sought-after Wagner conductors”

    – Bachtrack

  • “Longborough’s reputation – and with it that of Negus – for honouring Wagner was once more underlined”

    – The Guardian

  • “Longborough’s trump card in its Wagnerian performances has always been the guidance of Anthony Negus as conductor”

    – The Telegraph

  • “the musical atmosphere created by music director Anthony Negus is palpable”

    – The Stage

  • “Negus is an ideal Wagnerian interpreter. His is a steady hand, certainly never too fast, and his flexible tempos and attention to phrasing create an overall impression that feels just right. He also has a keen ear for musical storytelling”

    – Musical America

  • “Anthony Negus, regarded as one of the finest Wagnerian conductors in Britain today”

    – Opera Today