The latest on the grapevine is that the conductor and Wagner specialist Anthony Negus will step up to helm Opera Australia’s $15 million operatic mega-project in November.

Rumours have been swirling since Australian conductor Richard Mills’ surprise late withdrawal, with a variety of names seemingly being ruled in or out on a daily basis, but this latest speculation has a certain ring of truth about it (if you’ll pardon the pun). It certainly seems more likely than the previous Simone Young/Nicholas Carter double act story that was in circulation last week.

A Wagner enthusiast since his youth, Negus famously worked for Welsh National Opera (WNO), with the legendary Sir Reginald Goodall, and has gained an international standing as a conductor and coach of Wagner’s works. He is considered by many to be a safe pair of hands.

Since his first Parsifal performances in 1983, he has conducted Tristan, Das Rheingold, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung, all with WNO, as well as concert performances of Parsifal in Wellington with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

Alongside director Alan Privett, he built up the City of Birmingham Touring Opera/Jonathan Dove Ring Cycle for Longborough Festival Opera in the Cotswolds (in a private theatre made out of a converted barn). The...