Brian Mulligan

Baritone

Biography

Baritone Brian Mulligan is equally renowned as an interpreter of classic works by Wagner, and Strauss as of the most challenging 20th and 21st century operas. His striking stage portrayals have taken him to leading opera houses throughout Europe and North America. He makes regular appearances with the leading American orchestras and in recital.

Brian Mulligan begins the 23/24 season with a return to San Francisco Opera in his role debut as Telramund in a new David Alden production of Lohengrin with Eun Sun Kim conducting. He then makes his role and house debut as Barak in Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse. In the spring, Mulligan sings Wotan in Die Walküre on tour with Yannick Nézet- Séguin and the Rotterdam Philharmonic with performances in the Netherlands, Germany and at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris. He closes the season with another house and role debut, at the Teatro Regio di Torino in the title role of Der fliegende Holländer in a production by Willy Decker and conducted by Nathalie Stutzmann.

The 22/23 season marked Mulligan’s role debut as Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde, in two house debuts at Teatro di San Carlo Napoli and at the Teatro Real Madrid the latter, under the baton of Semyon Bychkov.  The season also saw his return to the Metropolitan Opera, first as the Herald in a new Francois Girard production of Lohengrin with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and then in a role debut as Faninal Der Rosenkavalier with Simone Young conducting. Mulligan also returned to the San Francisco Symphony for Britten’s War Requiem with Phillipe Jordan, and also to the San Francisco Opera for their Centennial Gala Concert, where he performed “Batter my Heart” from John Adams’ Doctor Atomic with Eun Sun Kim conducting.

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Reviews

“Mulligan is a big man with a big voice. His baritone is almost embarrassingly rich in its low and middle registers, with a high range and head voice of bell-like purity. His diction is flawless. Most importantly, he imbues every syllable with unmistakable meaning and purpose.” 

Patrick Rucker

Washington Post

“A third newcomer to the production was baritone Brian Mulligan as Marguerite’s unforgiving brother, Valentin. He brought burnished tone and deep feeling to his famous aria, “Avant de quitter ces lieux”; then came close to stealing the entire show with a death scene that was riveting in its raw intensity”

MusicalAmerica.com

“Brian Mulligan offers a wonderful baritone as Enrico, Lucia’s controlling brother.”

Betty Mohr

Chicago Sun Times

More Reviews

“Baritone Brian Mulligan was a forceful Enrico; singing with dark-hued authority, he played Lucia’s manipulative brother as a kind of blunt, iron-fisted CEO. Mulligan has had repeated successes in San Francisco this year — he sang the role of Chorebe in the company’s “The Trojans” this summer, then returned last month to sing the title role in “Sweeney Todd.” With this role, he delivered once again.”

Mercury News, Georgia Rowe 

“Mulligan necessarily adopted a weightier approach to the title role, striding about the stage with terrifying vigor, and fulminating with power and precision. His characterization made room for some of the saturnine charisma that draws in Mrs. Lovett, but primarily this was a growling, gut-churning account.”

SF Gate, Joshua Kosman 

“As Jack Torrance, Brian Mulligan does the seemingly impossible—he actually makes you forget Jack Nicholson. Possessed of an imposing build and a rugged, perfectly articulated baritone, Mulligan lets us see that Jack is fighting forces beyond his control.”

Opera News, Joshua Rosenblum 

“Baritone Brian Mulligan … commanded the stage with [an] exceptional account of the wronged barber. Mulligan delivered an arresting performance as Sweeney Todd, dispatching his arias such as ‘The Barber and His Wife’ and ‘My Friends’ as effortlessly as he did his barber chair victims. He was as chilling while going through the motions of slitting throats as he was warmly moving vocally.”

San Francisco Examiner, James Ambroff-Tahan 

“Brian Mulligan’s Nixon was vocally, dramatically, and comically ideal.”

San Francisco Examiner 

“But the real dramatic power on stage emanated, however, from Brian Mulligan’s Enrico, Lucia’s brother who hates Edgardo, and sets up her eventually disastrous marriage to Arturo who he thinks will solidify the Lammermoor fortunes. Mulligan was ferocious, angry, intense and captivating all night.”

The Globe and Mail 

“Brian Mulligan is riveting…a fine, strong, open baritone.”

The Financial Times of London