Negri was born in Bologna to Teresa
née Maranelli and Antonio Negri. Little is known about her early life or training, although according to
François-Joseph Fétis she studied under the
castrato singer Antonio Pasi in Bologna. She was barely 15 when she made her debut at the Teatro Formagliari Bologna during the 1719 carnival season in
Bononcini's
Il trionfo di Camilla and
Predieri's
La Partenope. She sang in various theatres in Italy until 1724 when she joined the opera company of
Antonio Denzio who ran
Franz Anton von Sporck's theatre in Prague. Negri returned to Italy in 1727 where she sang with
Vivaldi's company at the
Teatro Sant'Angelo in Venice for two seasons. According to Vivaldi's biographer Egidio Pozzi, Negri was known for her fiery temperament both on and off stage. The previous year in Prague her furious dispute with the impresario of Sporck's theatre ended in the police arriving at her house threatening her with arrest for breach of contract. In Venice Vivaldi cast her as the tyrant king Arsace in
Rosilena ed Oronta and the female warrior Bradamante in
Orlando furioso, a character she would reprise in Handel's
Alcina six years later. Appearances in other Italian cities followed over the next five years as well as an appearance in Frankfurt in 1732 when she sang in the premiere of
Giuseppe Maria Nelvi's
Siface re di Numidia. From the autumn of 1733 until the summer of 1737, she sang with Handel's Italian opera company in London, first at the
King's Theatre and then at the
Theatre Royal, where as
seconda donna she appeared in numerous operas, oratorios, and
feste teatrali. She then returned to Italy where she continued to perform and also sang in Lisbon in January 1740. Her last known performance was in Bologna in August 1744 in
Gli sponsali di Enea by
Lorenzo Gibelli. After that all trace of her disappeared. Her date of death is unknown. According to musicologist Giovanni Andrea Sechi, one of
Anton Maria Zanetti's drawings of a female singer
en travesti and labelled by him as "La Negri" is in all probability a portrait of her and not of the soprano Antonia Negri Tomii (known as "La Mestrina ") as previously thought. ==Roles created==