Longborough Opera launches Wagner Club
Longborough Festival Opera celebrates Anthony Negus’s 25th Anniversary as Music Director with launch of Wagner Club
Longborough Festival Opera is proud to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Anthony Negus as its esteemed Music Director in 2025 by announcing the launch of the Longborough Wagner Club.
Anthony Negus will be the Club’s Founder President, and its distinguished ambassadors include Sir John Tomlinson, Susan Bullock CBE and Alan Rusbridger.
For over a quarter-century, Negus has been central to Longborough’s success, shaping its musical vision and establishing the festival’s distinguished reputation within the Wagnerian tradition, often celebrated as the ‘English Bayreuth’.
In celebration of this milestone, the festival will launch the Longborough Wagner Club, a philanthropic circle to support Longborough’s ambitious and long-standing tradition of presenting the works of, and inspired by, Richard Wagner. As Founder President of the Club, Negus will continue to stimulate seasoned Wagner lovers and new audiences alike.
Negus says: "I am thrilled with the launch of the Longborough Wagner Club, in recognition of the festival's longstanding commitment to the interpretation of the composer's rich oeuvre and in celebration of 25 years of my time as Music Director."
The Club will help cement Longborough’s reputation as the birthplace and training ground for future generations of British Wagnerians, and secure an ongoing place for Wagner’s work within the festival programme. Additionally, the Club will support works closely associated with or influenced by Wagner’s monumental cultural legacy, including Avner Dorman’s Wahnfried: The Birth of the Wagner Cultand Claude Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, both scheduled for presentation at Longborough in 2025.
Looking ahead to 2026, Anthony will celebrate his 80th birthday with Longborough by conducting a revival of Longborough’s acclaimed 2015 production of Tristan und Isolde, directed by Carmen Jakobi. In 2027, he tackles one of the most ambitious operas in the repertoire: Wagner’s life-affirming comedy Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.
Wagner at Longborough
Longborough is proud to be the only UK summer festival to have successfully staged Wagner's epic Der Ring des Nibelungen three times, as well as over 36 Wagner productions in 30 years totalling over 100 performances, including Tristan und Isolde, Tannhaüserand Der fliegende Holländer.
The Club’s launch follows the company's triumphant 2024 season, which saw the culmination of their most recent Ring cycle. Directed by Amy Lane and conducted by Anthony Negus, the cycle was described as “a remarkable achievement” (Opera Now) – and that “the Longborough Ring Cycle can proudly take its place beside any in the world” (Prospect).
Longborough also has a celebrated track record of nurturing the next generation of British Wagnerian singers (often in partnership with Mastersingers), including Rachel Nicholls, Paul Carey Jones, Alwyn Mellor, Jonathan Stoughton, Lee Bisset, Mark Le Brocq and Katie Lowe.
With modest resources and no public subsidy, this small charitable company welcomes operagoers from across the world.
For more information, visit https://lfo.org.uk/support-us/