Professional Career
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, D.C. - 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 the late 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, Puccini's Turandot with the late Met stars Ghena Dimitrova and Giuliano Ciannella, and An Evening with Jerry Hadley, a gala concert featuring the late Metropolitan Opera tenor Jerry Hadley. He has also conducted local Los Angeles productions of Tosca, La bohème, Madama Butterfly, and Carmen.
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