Gualtiero Negrini

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Gualtiero Negrini ("Wally") (born 1961) is 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.

He began his studies at a very early age as a pianist and conductor under teachers such as Berlin Philharmonic conductor Fritz Zweig, soon conducting his first performance at the tender 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, as well as making his singing debut at the age of 15 as Dr. Malatesta in a production of Don Pasquale mounted by a small company called L'Opera Comique, a group begun by his father, the bass Luciano Negrini, and his mother, the mezzo-soprano Clare Mary Young.

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 soprano Juliana Gondek, mezzo-soprano Suzanna Guzman and baritone Thomas Hampson. Soon afterward, at 19, he became a finalist in the 1980 Lyric Opera of Chicago Auditions alongside his own student, bass-baritone Rush Tully. There he would be mentored by Maestro Walter Baracchi, the noted repetiteur who had been with Lyric Opera of Chicago for a decade, and Milan's La Scala since the late 1950's. This launched a professional singing career in which he has enjoyed many successes, such as his portrayal of the "rock star" Nanki-Poo in Peter Sellars' 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. Also during his seasons with Lyric Opera of Chicago, he shared the stage with such singers as Mirella Freni, Luciano Pavarotti, Alfredo Kraus and Nicolai Ghiaurov.

He made American operatic history when, at the age of 21, he replaced the late Goesta Windbergh as Ferrando in Cosi Fan Tutte in Lyric Opera of Chicago's 1982 production, making him the youngest tenor ever to sing a leading role with a major American opera house.

In the late 1980's, 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 smash hit, The Phantom of the Opera, for the 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 1990's 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 Giuliano Ciannella, and An Evening with Jerry Hadley, a gala concert featuring Metropolitan Opera tenor Jerry Hadley. He also conducted local Los Angeles productions of Tosca, La Boheme, 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 acclaimed Broadway soprano 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. He has also, at times, coached in his studio other well-known voice teachers such as Joann Zajac, Bill Schuman, and Mark Andreas Zenger of Switzerland