Francisco Negrin

Francisco Negrin
Born	Francisco Miguel Negrín Maggioros (1963-06-05)June 5, 1963 Mexico City
Residence	Barcelona
Occupation	Stage director
Website
negrin.com/francisco

Francisco Negrin (born June 5, 1963)^[1] is an award winning stage director working in opera. He is known for his musical^[1] and cinematic approach to the staging of operas^[2] of all periods, and particularly of pieces usually considered to be difficult to stage successfully. He is seen as a specialist of Handel operas^[3] and is also characterised by a highly integrated use of dance as part of the dramaturgy.

Biography

Negrin was born in Mexico City, the son of Spaniard Francisco Negrin Diaz and Greek-Hawaiian Catherine Negrin (née Maggioros). He is the great-grandson of Juan Negrín y López, President of the Second Spanish Republic. When he was 9 years old, the family moved from Mexico to the family home in Antibes, France.^[4]

After completing his secondary studies at the Lycée in Antibes (graduating with a mathematics and physics Baccalaureate), Negrin studied literature and film at the university of Aix-en-Provence, France,^[4] while attending singing lessons at the Conservatoire d'Aix-en-Provence, where he was first in contact with the world of opera. He worked as an extra and later as an assistant director and stage manager at the Aix-en-Provence Festival (1982–83). There he met Swiss stage director François Rochaix (fr), who became his mentor and teacher. Negrin assisted him on many productions, including Seattle Opera's Ring cycle. Rochaix introduced him to the artist agent Lies Askonas. She recommended Negrin to Gerard Mortier who hired him as a staff assistant director at La Monnaie/De Munt in Brussels for two seasons (1984-1986).^[5] There he continued to learn his trade assisting the directors Patrice Chéreau,^[3] Karl-Ernst Herrmann (de), John Cox and Maurice Béjart. After leaving La Monnaie in 1986, Negrin moved to London where he started his career as a director. He has lived in Barcelona since 2003.^[1]

Career

Negrin and conductor Peter Ash put together a performing version of the unfinished La chute de la maison Usher by Debussy, which they staged at Christ Church, Spitalfields, in London. This performance came to the attention of the Southbank Centre which commissioned a production of the reconstruction for the Queen Elizabeth Hall in 1989. That was the start of an international directing career which includes the following productions:

Opera productions

L'Arbore di Diana. Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, 2009. Photo by Ariane Unfried

Salome. Palau de les Arts in Valencia, 2010. Photo by Bruno Poet

Salome. Palau de les Arts in Valencia, 2010. Photo by Bruno Poet

La Clemenza di Tito. Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, 2006.

Rinaldo. Chicago Lyric Opera, 2012. Photo by Francisco Negrin

The San Francisco Opera production of Werther will be seen at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2012.^[6] A new production of The Cunning Little Vixen will open at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen in 2012.^[7] Negrin's production of I puritani will be seen at La Scala in Milan in 2014 .^{[citation needed]}

Collaborators

Francisco Negrin has worked in close collaboration with several design teams including:

• Set and costume designers: Louis Desiré, Es Devlin, Rifail Ajdarpasic and Ariane Isabell Unfried, Nigel Lowery, John Conklin, Paul Steinberg, Anthony Baker, Jonathan Morell, Carol Bailey and Allen Moyer

• Lighting designers: Bruno Poet, Wolfgang Goebbel, Allen Hahn, Frank Evin, Davy Cunningham, Duane Schuler, Joan Sullivan, Robert Wierzel, Heather Carson and Jennifer Tipton
• Choreographers: Fin Walker, Ana Yepes and Thomas MacManus
• Video artists: Joan Rodón and Luke Halls

Television and DVD

The following productions have been broadcast on TV: Venus, Les contes d'Hoffman, Una cosa rara (Drottninholm version) and Una cosa rara (Valencia version)

The following productions have been released on DVD: I puritani (DVD and Blu-ray),^[8] L'arbore di Diana,^[9] Giulio Cesare (Sydney version),^[10] Giulio Cesare (Copenhagen version),^[11] Partenope (Copenhagen version)^[12] and Norma (Barcelona version).^[13]

Other work

Negrin collaborated with choreographer Fin Walker, composer Ben Park and film animator Damian Gascoigne on a site-specific performance called Two Stations, at the Queen Elisabeth Hall in London, commissioned by the Southbank Centre's Great Outdoors festival in 1994.

In 2002, Francisco Negrin was a member of the board for London-based contemporary dance company Walker Dance.

Negrin worked with the rock band OK Go, conceiving the staging for a performance at London's The Roundhouse, using an installation by architect Ron Arad called "Curtain Call".^[14] But the show was cancelled before opening.

Negrin did the editing and visual effects for the music video of the song "Slow Me" for singer Mudibu, directed by Dean Loxton.

Negrin has given several master classes for opera singers, aiming to develop their acting skills. A series of master classes was devised by Negrin for the Royal Danish Opera Academy in Copenhagen in which the emphasis was on the whole process of conceiving and putting on a show, with participating singers having to write, stage, light and perform their own mini-operas or plays.

Awards

Negrin's production of Orlando at The Royal Opera House in London was nominated for two Laurence Olivier Awards in 2004: "Best new opera production" and "Outstanding achievement in opera" (for Bejun Mehta).^[15]

His production of Giulio Cesare for Opera Australia won several Green Room Awards in 1995, including best opera director and best opera production.

Negrin's second production of Giulio Cesare, the one for the Royal Danish opera in Copenhagen, won the Årets Reumert (dk) Award for best opera production in 2003. And Negrin's production of Partenope for the same company was nominated for the award in 2009.^[16]

References

External links

• Francisco Negrin official website
• Artist profile on Operabase
• Artist profile at Harrison Parrott Management
• Artist profile at AMCK Management