Gualtiero Negrini
Encyclopedia
Gualtiero Negrini (born January 24, 1961) is a pianist
, conductor
, and singer, known mostly as an Italian-American tenor
who has performed leading roles with Lyric Opera of Chicago
, Washington Opera and many others. His great uncle, the tenor
Carlo Negrini, created the role of Gabriele Adorno for Giuseppe Verdi
himself, in the opera Simon Boccanegra
in Venice in 1857.
conductor Fritz Zweig, soon conducting his first performance at the age of 13, a two-piano performance of Madama Butterfly
with a small local Los Angeles opera company. In his subsequent teen years, he continued conducting local productions of Don Pasquale
, Faust
, and Lucia di Lammermoor
. Negrini made his singing debut at age 15, as Dr. Malatesta in a production of Don Pasquale mounted by a small company known as L'Opera Comique, a group begun by his father, the bass Luciano Negrini, and his mother, the mezzo-soprano
Clare Mary Young.
In 1978, he graduated from Daniel Murphy High School
. At the age of 17, he made his debut as a tenor as Paolino in USC
Opera's production of Il matrimonio segreto
. While at USC Opera Workshop, he also did work as a repertoire coach, rehearsing the likes of mezzo-soprano
Suzanna Guzman and baritone
Thomas Hampson. Soon afterward, at age 19, he became a finalist in the 1980 Lyric Opera of Chicago
auditions, alongside his own student, bass-baritone
Rush Tully
. There, he was later mentored by Walter Baracchi, the noted repetiteur who had been with Lyric Opera of Chicago for a decade, and Milan's La Scala, who had been there since the late 1950s. This launched a professional singing career for Negrini. Among his most successful performances are his portrayal of the "rock star" Nanki-Poo in Peter Sellars
's updated production of The Mikado
and his rendition of Don Ramiro in the Gian-Carlo Menotti production of La Cenerentola
at the Kennedy Center in Washington, a role he would eventually perform over 100 times. During this period he also performed the role of David in Die Meistersinger with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
under Erich Leinsdorf
.
He made history at Lyric Opera of Chicago
, when in 1982 at the age of 21, he replaced Gösta Winbergh
as Ferrando in Così fan tutte
, making him the youngest tenor ever to sing a leading role there.
In the late 1980s, while continuing to sing throughout the United States, in such roles as Hoffman in The Tales of Hoffman, Lord Percy in Anna Bolena
and Dick Johnson in La fanciulla del West
, he was approached by Hal Prince
to re-create the role of Ubaldo Piangi in Andrew Lloyd Webber
's The Phantom of the Opera
, for its Los Angeles premiere. This would take Negrini through 8 years and over 3,000 performances of that role, in both Los Angeles and San Francisco.
In the early 1990s he began conducting again, founding the Opera Orchestra of Los Angeles, with business partner Donald Rivers. With that organization, he conducted Verdi
's Attila
with Rush Tully
, Michelle Harmon-Gulick, Timothy Feerer, Michael Lyon and Richard Gould, Puccini
's Turandot
with Met
stars Ghena Dimitrova
and the late Giuliano Ciannella
, and An Evening with Jerry Hadley, a gala concert featuring the late Metropolitan Opera
tenor Jerry Hadley
. He also conducted local Los Angeles productions of Tosca
, La bohème
, Madama Butterfly
, and Carmen
.
In recent years, while continuing to sing in such performances as A Gala Vienna New Year's Eve with the San Francisco Symphony
under conductor Yves Abel and alongside soprano Lisa Vroman
, and the role of Martin in Aaron Copland
's The Tender Land
for the Cabrillo Music Festival, he also began producing recordings. Some of the best known of these are Broadway Classic which he also conducted, starring Lisa Vroman
, and Dangerous Type, starring jazz singer and actress Bettina Devin
. In the past two decades, he has maintained teaching studios in both Los Angeles and San Francisco, working with such widely varying talents as Metropolitan Opera tenor Raul Hernandez, Bettina Devin of the film Rent
, tenor Franc D'Ambrosio of Godfather III fame, TV and stage star Nancy Dussault, Broadway singing actresses Lisa Vroman, Aneka Rose and Karen Morrow
, and the Tony Award
-winning Dame Edna.
In the Fall of 2009, he appeared on the HBO TV series Curb Your Enthusiasm
, as an amiable opera-singing restaurant owner who was rudely interrupted by Larry David
.
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
, conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
, and singer, known mostly as an Italian-American tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
who has performed leading roles with Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1952, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicolà Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria Callas's American debut in Norma...
, Washington Opera and many others. His great uncle, the tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
Carlo Negrini, created the role of Gabriele Adorno for Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
himself, in the opera Simon Boccanegra
Simon Boccanegra
Simon Boccanegra is an opera with a prologue and three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play Simón Bocanegra by Antonio García Gutiérrez....
in Venice in 1857.
Biography
Negrini began his studies at a very early age as a pianist and conductor under teachers such as Berlin PhilharmonicBerlin Philharmonic Orchestra
The Berlin Philharmonic, German: , formerly Berliner Philharmonisches Orchester , is an orchestra based in Berlin, Germany. In 2006, a group of ten European media outlets voted the Berlin Philharmonic number three on a list of "top ten European Orchestras", after the Vienna Philharmonic and the...
conductor Fritz Zweig, soon conducting his first performance at the age of 13, a two-piano performance of Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
with a small local Los Angeles opera company. In his subsequent teen years, he continued conducting local productions of Don Pasquale
Don Pasquale
Don Pasquale is an opera buffa, or comic opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The librettist Giovanni Ruffini wrote the Italian language libretto after Angelo Anelli's libretto for Stefano Pavesi's Ser Marcantonio ....
, Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
, and Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor
Lucia di Lammermoor is a dramma tragico in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Salvadore Cammarano wrote the Italian language libretto loosely based upon Sir Walter Scott's historical novel The Bride of Lammermoor....
. Negrini made his singing debut at age 15, as Dr. Malatesta in a production of Don Pasquale mounted by a small company known as L'Opera Comique, a group begun by his father, the bass Luciano Negrini, and his mother, the mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
Clare Mary Young.
In 1978, he graduated from Daniel Murphy High School
Daniel Murphy High School
Daniel Murphy High School was a Roman Catholic all-boys high school located in Los Angeles, California. It was located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.-History:...
. At the age of 17, he made his debut as a tenor as Paolino in USC
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
Opera's production of Il matrimonio segreto
Il matrimonio segreto
Il matrimonio segreto is an opera in two acts, music by Domenico Cimarosa, on a libretto by Giovanni Bertati, based on the play The Clandestine Marriage by George Colman the Elder and David Garrick...
. While at USC Opera Workshop, he also did work as a repertoire coach, rehearsing the likes of mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
Suzanna Guzman and baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
Thomas Hampson. Soon afterward, at age 19, he became a finalist in the 1980 Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1952, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicolà Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria Callas's American debut in Norma...
auditions, alongside his own student, bass-baritone
Bass-baritone
A bass-baritone is a high-lying bass or low-lying "classical" baritone voice type which shares certain qualities with the true baritone voice. The term arose in the late 19th century to describe the particular type of voice required to sing three Wagnerian roles: the Dutchman in Der fliegende...
Rush Tully
Rush Tully
Rush Tully is an American composer and operatic bass-baritone who performed many seasons with Lyric Opera of Chicago in the company of such luminaries as Plácido Domingo, Mirella Freni, Alfredo Kraus, Paul Plishka and Nicolai Ghiaurov...
. There, he was later mentored by Walter Baracchi, the noted repetiteur who had been with Lyric Opera of Chicago for a decade, and Milan's La Scala, who had been there since the late 1950s. This launched a professional singing career for Negrini. Among his most successful performances are his portrayal of the "rock star" Nanki-Poo in Peter Sellars
Peter Sellars
Peter Sellars is an American theatre director, noted for his unique contemporary stagings of classical and contemporary operas and plays...
's updated production of The Mikado
The Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
and his rendition of Don Ramiro in the Gian-Carlo Menotti production of La Cenerentola
La Cenerentola
La Cenerentola, ossia La bontà in trionfo is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini. The libretto was written by Jacopo Ferretti, based on the fairy tale Cinderella...
at the Kennedy Center in Washington, a role he would eventually perform over 100 times. During this period he also performed the role of David in Die Meistersinger with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1891, the Symphony makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival...
under Erich Leinsdorf
Erich Leinsdorf
Erich Leinsdorf was a naturalized American Austrian conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a reputation for exacting standards as well as an acerbic personality...
.
He made history at Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1952, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicolà Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria Callas's American debut in Norma...
, when in 1982 at the age of 21, he replaced Gösta Winbergh
Gösta Winbergh
Gösta Winbergh was a Swedish tenor and Mozart admirer.Winbergh was born in Stockholm. He is often mentioned as among Sweden's and, indeed, the world's finest tenors, included with Jussi Björling and Nicolai Gedda....
as Ferrando in Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
, making him the youngest tenor ever to sing a leading role there.
In the late 1980s, while continuing to sing throughout the United States, in such roles as Hoffman in The Tales of Hoffman, Lord Percy in Anna Bolena
Anna Bolena
Anna Bolena is a tragedia lirica, or opera, in two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian libretto after Ippolito Pindemonte's Enrico VIII ossia Anna Bolena and Alessandro Pepoli's Anna Bolena, both telling of the life of Anne Boleyn...
and Dick Johnson in La fanciulla del West
La fanciulla del West
La fanciulla del West is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Guelfo Civinini and Carlo Zangarini, based on the play The Girl of the Golden West by the American author David Belasco. Its highly-publicised premiere occurred in New York City in 1910...
, he was approached by Hal Prince
Hal Prince
Harold Smith Prince is an American theatrical producer and director associated with many of the best-known Broadway musical productions of the past half-century...
to re-create the role of Ubaldo Piangi in Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
's The Phantom of the Opera
The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical)
The Phantom of the Opera is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the French novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux.The music was composed by Lloyd Webber, and most lyrics were written by Charles Hart, with additional lyrics by Richard Stilgoe. Alan Jay Lerner was an early collaborator,...
, for its Los Angeles premiere. This would take Negrini through 8 years and over 3,000 performances of that role, in both Los Angeles and San Francisco.
In the early 1990s he began conducting again, founding the Opera Orchestra of Los Angeles, with business partner Donald Rivers. With that organization, he conducted Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Attila
Attila (opera)
Attila is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Temistocle Solera, based on the play Attila, König der Hunnen by Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias Werner. Initially, Verdi had enlisted Francesco Maria Piave to prepare the libretto, after Verdi's own scenario...
with Rush Tully
Rush Tully
Rush Tully is an American composer and operatic bass-baritone who performed many seasons with Lyric Opera of Chicago in the company of such luminaries as Plácido Domingo, Mirella Freni, Alfredo Kraus, Paul Plishka and Nicolai Ghiaurov...
, Michelle Harmon-Gulick, Timothy Feerer, Michael Lyon and Richard Gould, Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's Turandot
Turandot
Turandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni.Though Puccini's first interest in the subject was based on his reading of Friedrich Schiller's adaptation of the play, his work is most nearly based on the earlier text Turandot...
with Met
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
stars Ghena Dimitrova
Ghena Dimitrova
Ghena Dimitrova was a Bulgarian operatic soprano. Her voice was known for its power and extension used in operatic roles such as Turandot in a career spanning four decades.-Early career:...
and the late Giuliano Ciannella
Giuliano Ciannella
Giuliano Ciannella was an Italian operatic tenor who had a major international career from the mid 1970s through the late 1990s. He was notably a regular performer at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City from 1979 through 1986, the Lyric Opera of Chicago between 1982 and 1988, and at the Vienna...
, and An Evening with Jerry Hadley, a gala concert featuring the late Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
tenor Jerry Hadley
Jerry Hadley
Jerry Hadley was an American operatic tenor. He received three Grammy awards for his vocal performances in the recordings of Jenůfa , Susannah , and Candide...
. He also conducted local Los Angeles productions of Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
, La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
, Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
, and Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
.
In recent years, while continuing to sing in such performances as A Gala Vienna New Year's Eve with the San Francisco Symphony
San Francisco Symphony
The San Francisco Symphony is an orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980, the orchestra has performed at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall. The San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus are part of the organization...
under conductor Yves Abel and alongside soprano Lisa Vroman
Lisa Vroman
Lisa Vroman is an American lyric soprano and stage actress. She graduated from South Jefferson Central School in New York State in 1975, the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam in 1979, and she did her graduate work at Carnegie Mellon University....
, and the role of Martin in Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
's The Tender Land
The Tender Land
The Tender Land is an opera with music by Aaron Copland and libretto by Horace Everett, a pseudonym for Erik Johns. The opera tells of a farm family in the Midwest of the United States. Copland was inspired to write this opera after viewing the Depression-era photographs of Walker Evans and...
for the Cabrillo Music Festival, he also began producing recordings. Some of the best known of these are Broadway Classic which he also conducted, starring Lisa Vroman
Lisa Vroman
Lisa Vroman is an American lyric soprano and stage actress. She graduated from South Jefferson Central School in New York State in 1975, the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam in 1979, and she did her graduate work at Carnegie Mellon University....
, and Dangerous Type, starring jazz singer and actress Bettina Devin
Bettina Devin
-External links:*...
. In the past two decades, he has maintained teaching studios in both Los Angeles and San Francisco, working with such widely varying talents as Metropolitan Opera tenor Raul Hernandez, Bettina Devin of the film Rent
Rent (film)
Rent is a 2005 American musical drama film directed by Chris Columbus. It is an adaptation of the Broadway musical of the same name, in turn based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème. The film depicts the lives of several Bohemians and their struggles with sexuality, cross-dressing, drugs, life...
, tenor Franc D'Ambrosio of Godfather III fame, TV and stage star Nancy Dussault, Broadway singing actresses Lisa Vroman, Aneka Rose and Karen Morrow
Karen Morrow
Karen Morrow is an American singer – actress best known for her work in musical theater. Her honors include an Emmy Award and a Theatre World Award, and an Ovation Award and five Drama-Logue Award nominations....
, and the Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
-winning Dame Edna.
In the Fall of 2009, he appeared on the HBO TV series Curb Your Enthusiasm
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Curb Your Enthusiasm is an American comedy television series produced and broadcast by HBO, which premiered on October 15, 2000. As of 2011, it has completed 80 episodes over eight seasons. The series was created by Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, who stars as a fictionalized version of himself...
, as an amiable opera-singing restaurant owner who was rudely interrupted by Larry David
Larry David
Lawrence Gene "Larry" David is an American actor, writer, comedian and producer. He is best known as the co-creator , head writer, and executive producer of the television series Seinfeld from 1989 to 1996, and for creating the 1999 HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, a partially improvised sitcom in...
.