Biography

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.

The 2021-2022 season began with his role debut as Wotan in Das Rheingold with the Wiener Symphoniker and Andres Orozco-Estrada at the Bregenzer Festspiele. He then sang Créon in Enescu’s Oedipe for his house debut with Opéra National de Paris, in a new production by Wajdi Mouwad with Ingo Metzmacher conducting, and made a house debut with Irish National Opera in Dublin as Don Pizzaro in Fidelio, with Fergus Sheil conducting. Mulligan sang in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Antonello Manacorda and the Munich Philharmonic, then returned to Dutch National Opera for his role debut as Jochanaan in Salome, conducted by Lahav Shani. Mulligan also made his role debut as Wotan in Die Walküre in a new production at Opernhaus Stuttgart, with Cornelius Meister conducting. He finished his season with a return to Bregenz, as Sharpless in Andreas Homoki’s new production of Madama Butterfly with Enrique Mazzola conducting. In addition, early 2022 saw the release of Brian Mulligan’s third solo record, titled Alburnum. The disc consists of songs and cycles from the 21^st century, with pianist Timothy Long and music by Mason Bates, Missy Mazzoli, and Greg Spears.

Career concert highlights include appearances Mahler’s Das klagende Lied, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas; Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, in a performance recorded by Deutsche Grammophon and released on DVD; in the world premiere of James Primosch’s Songs for Adam with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis; Orff’s Carmina Burana and Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony with the Cleveland Orchestra; and a role debut as Amonasro in a semi-staged performance of Aida at the Aspen Music Festival, under the baton of Robert Spano. In addition, he has performed John Adsam’s The Wound Dresser with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; of Ullman’s  Der Kaiser von Atlantis with Houston Grand Opera, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Ravinia Festival under the baton of James Conlon; Mendelssohn’s Paulus and Handel’s Messiah with the Houston Symphony; Titus in Magnard’s rarely performed Bérénice at Carnegie Hall with the American Symphony Orchestra; Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Mahler’s Das Knaben Wunderhorn with the Phoenix Symphony under Michael Christie; and Silvio in Pagliacci with the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra in New Zealand.