Longborough Festival Opera, celebrated as the ‘English Bayreuth’, has launched the philanthropic Wagner Club to mark the 25th anniversary in 2025 of the appointment of Anthony Negus as its Music Director.
The club will support the Cotswold festival’s tradition of presenting Richard Wagner’s works and those inspired by him, which have included three complete Ring cycles and 36 Wagner productions over 30 years, and of providing a training ground for British artists. Negus will be its founding President, with Stephen Fry, singers Sir John Tomlinson and Susan Bullock and former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger as ambassadors.
The festival’s programme next year will include the UK première of Avner Dorman’s Wahnfried: The Birth of the Wagner Cult, which explores the composer’s complex legacy and the role of his family in promoting his music, starring leading British singers including soprano Bullock, countertenor Andrew Watts and tenor Mark Le Brocq who sang the parts of Loge and Siegmund in Longborough’s 2024 Ring Cycle.