Biography

He begins the 2024/25 season in the title role of Der fliegende Holländer at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with Jaap van Zweden conducting the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest. He then returns to the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Don Pizarro in Fidelio, after which he makes his role debut as Der Wanderer in Siegfried at the Hangzhou Philharmonic in China with Markus Stenz conducting. Mulligan then makes another role debut, as Alberich in Das Rheingold with Pablo Heras-Casado conducting a new production by Calixto Bieito at the Opéra National de Paris. Next, he returns to the Teatro San Carlo di Napoli as Jochanaan in Salome with Dan Ettinger conducting, after which he again sings Holländer with the Philharmonie Luxembourg for performances in Luxembourg and Brussels. Mulligan then makes his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra as Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, before returning to the San Francisco Opera for their Pride Gala. He finishes the season again as the Dutchman, in his debut with the Taiwan Philharmonic in Taipei.

Mr. Mulligan opened his 2023/24 season as Telramund in Lohengrin at San Francisco Opera, before heading to Toulouse to sing Barak in Die Frau ohne Schatten. Together with the Rotterdam Philharmonic under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, he toured amongst others to Baden-Baden and Paris singing Wotan in Die Walküre. He also performed and recorded Brahms’ Deutsches Requiem with the Bergen Philharmonic under Edward Gardener.  At the Teatro Regio Torino, he gave his role debut as The Flying Dutchman, a role that he is set to sing also with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Luxembourg Philharmonic and others. Other upcoming productions include Fidelio (Pizarro) at Chicago Lyric Opera and Salome (Jochanaan) at Teatro San Carlo in Naples.

In the season 2022/23 Brian Mulligan could be seen as Kurwenal (Tristan und Isolde) in Naples and at the Teatro Real in Madrid. Additional highlights of the season were Heerrufer in a new production of Lohengrin under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Faninal in the new Rosenkavalier under Simone Young, both at the Metropolitan Opera. He performed in the 100^th Anniversary Concert of San Francisco Opera conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles, Patrick Summers and Eun Sun Kim.

Brian Mulligan’s 2021/22 season was marked with his role debut as Wotan in Das Rheingold at the Bregenz Festival, and his role debut as Wotan in Die Walküre in a new production at Stuttgart State Opera with Cornelius Meister conducting. Another role debut that season was Jochanaan at the Dutch National Opera in the Ivo van Hove production of Salome, under the baton of Lahav Shani. He had house debuts at the Opéra national de Paris (Crèon in Enescu’s Œdipe, new production by Wajdi Mouwad under the baton of Ingo Metzmacher) and and the Irish National Opera in Dublin (Don Pizzaro in Fidelio).  At the beginning of the season Mulligan was the bass soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Antonello Manacorda and the Munich Philharmonic. He ended his season with returns to the Opéra National de Paris as Amfortas (Parsifal) and to Bregenz, where he sang Sharpless in Andreas Homoki’s new production of Madama Butterfly under Enrique Mazzola.

Valentin (Faust), Golaud (Pélleas et Mélisande), Chorèbe (Les Troyens), Nélusko (L’Africaine), and the eponymous role in Ambroise Thomas’ Hamlet are some of his French roles.

With parts such as Balstrode (Peter Grimes), Sweeney Todd, Prospero (The Tempest), Nixon (Nixon in China), Klinghoffer (The Death of Klinghoffer), and John Proctor (The Crucible), Brian Mulligan is also a proponent of English-language opera. The artist has also created several successful world premieres, including James Primosch’s Songs for Adam with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Greg Spears’ song cycle Walden at the Kennedy Center in Washington. Critics praised him for his outstanding performance as Jack Torrance in Paul Moravec’s The Shining at Minnesota Opera in 2016.

The internationally renowned artist performs regularly at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the San Francisco Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Houston Opera, the opera houses in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Frankfurt, and Zurich, as well as at major festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, the Wiener Festwochen, the Saito Kinan Festival in Japan, the Wexford Opera Festival and the Aspen Music Festival.