Owen Brannigan
Encyclopedia
Owen Brannigan OBE (10 March 19089 May 1973) was an English bass
, known in opera
for buffo roles and in concert for a wide range of solo parts in music ranging from Henry Purcell
to Michael Tippett
. He is best remembered for his roles in Mozart
and Britten
operas and for his recordings of roles in Britten, Offenbach
and Gilbert and Sullivan
operas, as well as recordings of English folk songs.
Brannigan began as an amateur singer and attended music college part-time, while working as a joiner
, until his quality was recognised and he was awarded a scholarship during World War II
. Although he had an international opera career, he performed most frequently with English opera companies, particularly Sadler's Wells opera, and later at Glyndebourne
and Covent Garden
. Highlights of his broad repertory included creating three roles in Benjamin Britten's early operas, and two more in later Britten operas that were written specifically for him. On record and in concert at the Proms
he was a popular interpreter of the bass-baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Brannigan's oratorio
and concert repertory was extensive, covering works from many periods.
, near Newcastle
, Northumberland
, the son of the local church organist, in whose choir he sang as a boy. After leaving school, he worked as a joiner
in Slough
, and in his spare time he appeared with the Windsor Operatic Society. In 1934 he enrolled as a night student at the Guildhall School of Music
, and in 1938 was appointed as a bass singer at Westminster Cathedral
. After a Guildhall performance of Ruddigore
, by Gilbert and Sullivan
, in which he played a member of the chorus of ghosts depicted in a picture gallery, he was singled out by Sir Landon Ronald
: "I want to hear the third portrait from the left", and offered a scholarship to continue his studies full time. He was later well reviewed for his performance in a student production of La vie parisienne
, by Jacques Offenbach
, in 1939. He won the Guildhall's Gold Medal
in 1942.
, Brannigan was in charge of construction work building army camps, but he was able to make some broadcasts on BBC
radio. In 1939 he took part in a BBC studio production of Ralph Vaughan Williams
's Hugh the Drover
. Joan Cross
heard him broadcast and invited him to join the Sadler's Wells Opera, with whom he made his professional operatic début in 1943, at age 35, as Sarastro in Mozart's
The Magic Flute
. He was with Sadler's Wells from 1944 to 1949 and from 1952 to 1958. There he created the role of Swallow in Benjamin Britten
's Peter Grimes
(1945). He performed at Glyndebourne Festival Opera
from 1947, and at Covent Garden
from 1948. At Glyndeborne, in other Britten premières, he created the roles of Collatinus in The Rape of Lucretia (1946), and Superintendent Budd in Albert Herring
(1948). Later, Britten wrote the parts of Noye in Noye's Fludde
(1958), and Bottom
in A Midsummer Night's Dream
(1960), with Brannigan in mind. Brannigan's repertoire ranged from the earliest operas, including La Calisto
by Francesco Cavalli
and The Fairy-Queen
by Henry Purcell
, to modern operas, not only by Britten but other composers including Malcolm Williamson
.
Brannigan was known for his roles in comic operas. Of his performance in Don Pasquale
at Sadler's Wells, The Times
reported, "Brannigan dodders deliciously in the title role, an irresistible noodle with a ludicrous ripeness in his tones and a vivid appreciation of the humour." He was also admired for his Osmin in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail
, in which he displayed both his buffo and his dramatic skills. He appeared in the 1953 film The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan
, and in several Gilbert and Sullivan concerts at the Proms
. Of the first of these, in 1955, The Times wrote, "So far as comedy was concerned, Mr Owen Brannigan won hands down in his magnificently done Sentry's Song (from Iolanthe
)."
than as an opera singer." In concert, his repertoire ranged from Purcell to Bach
's B minor Mass and Tippett
's A Child of Our Time
. It included works outside the general repertory such as Kodály
's Te Deum and Elgar
's The Apostles
. At the Three Choirs Festival
, he sang in Verdi
's Requiem
and Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius
, in which he was praised for his "forthright nobility". This aspect of his singing was not without its critics: Edward Sackville-West
called it "monotonously hearty", while his colleague Andrew Porter thought it "fine and forthright." Among the other choral works in which Brannigan sang the bass solo parts were Haydn
's Creation and Handel
's Messiah
and Acis and Galatea. In addition to the classics, he also gained popularity in radio and television programmes of Northumbria
n and other folksongs and art songs, especially by English composers such as Thomas Morley
, Charles Edward Horn
and Arthur Sullivan
.
Together with Sir William Walton
, Brannigan took part in a celebrated prank at the Royal Festival Hall
in 1961, at a concert celebrating the musical humorist Gerard Hoffnung
, who had died in 1959. The management announced that Walton had agreed at short notice to conduct an excerpt from his oratorio Belshazzar's Feast
. Walton and Brannigan entered, and bowed. Walton raised his baton, and the chorus bellowed the single word "slain" from the score. Walton then put down his baton, shook hands with Brannigan, who had not sung a note, and they both bowed and left the platform to gales of applause.
, he recorded Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann in 1947, a recording which formed the soundtrack for a 1951 film
of the opera. For Sir Adrian Boult
he recorded the bass solo part in Messiah and the role of Polyphemus in Acis and Galatea.
For Sir Malcolm Sargent
, he recorded the following Gilbert and Sullivan roles: the title role in The Mikado
(1957), Don Alhambra in The Gondoliers
(1957), Wilfred Shadbolt in The Yeomen of the Guard
(1958), Dick Deadeye in H.M.S. Pinafore
(1958), Private Willis in Iolanthe (1959), the Sergeant of Police in The Pirates of Penzance
(1961), the Usher in Trial by Jury
(1961) and Sir Despard in Ruddigore (1963). He also sang Willis in the BBC recording of Iolanthe in 1966. His interpretation of the Sergeant of Police in The Pirates of Penzance was so admired that he was invited to make a second recording of it, for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
, in 1968. The Penguin Guide to Opera said, "perhaps the greatest joy of this recording is Owen Brannigan's Sergeant of Police, a part this artist was surely born to play ... it is almost like hearing it for the first time."
Many of Brannigan's favourite North Country songs were recorded on discs such as A Little Nonsense, originally recorded in 1962 and reissued in 2007, with the Pro Arte Orchestra
conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras
.
.
Brannigan was in a serious car crash in 1972, from which he never fully recovered. He died of pneumonia
in 1973, aged 65, and is buried in the churchyard of St John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church at Annitsford, where his wife Mary is also buried. Their only son Owen died in 1981 after being electrocuted in an accident.
Opera singer Graeme Danby
presented a series of tributes to Brannigan on television and in concert in 2008 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Brannigan's birth. His tribute, including recordings of Brannigan, as well as singing by Danby and interviews of people who knew Brannigan, is available as a DVD documentary called The Owen Brannigan Story – a tribute by Graeme Danby.
Bass (voice type)
A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C...
, known in opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
for buffo roles and in concert for a wide range of solo parts in music ranging from Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...
to Michael Tippett
Michael Tippett
Sir Michael Kemp Tippett OM CH CBE was an English composer.In his long career he produced a large body of work, including five operas, three large-scale choral works, four symphonies, five string quartets, four piano sonatas, concertos and concertante works, song cycles and incidental music...
. He is best remembered for his roles in Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
and Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
operas and for his recordings of roles in Britten, Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
and Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
operas, as well as recordings of English folk songs.
Brannigan began as an amateur singer and attended music college part-time, while working as a joiner
Joiner
A joiner differs from a carpenter in that joiners cut and fit joints in wood that do not use nails. Joiners usually work in a workshop since the formation of various joints generally requires non-portable machinery. A carpenter normally works on site...
, until his quality was recognised and he was awarded a scholarship during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Although he had an international opera career, he performed most frequently with English opera companies, particularly Sadler's Wells opera, and later at Glyndebourne
Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an English opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England.-History:...
and Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
. Highlights of his broad repertory included creating three roles in Benjamin Britten's early operas, and two more in later Britten operas that were written specifically for him. On record and in concert at the Proms
The Proms
The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London...
he was a popular interpreter of the bass-baritone roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Brannigan's oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
and concert repertory was extensive, covering works from many periods.
Early years
Brannigan was born in AnnitsfordAnnitsford
Annitsford is a village located on the border between Tyne and Wear and Northumberland.The main conurbation of the village falls under the jurisdiction of the Borough of North Tyneside in Tyne and Wear, while some parts of the outskirts of the village are included within Northumberland.The name of...
, near Newcastle
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
, Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...
, the son of the local church organist, in whose choir he sang as a boy. After leaving school, he worked as a joiner
Joiner
A joiner differs from a carpenter in that joiners cut and fit joints in wood that do not use nails. Joiners usually work in a workshop since the formation of various joints generally requires non-portable machinery. A carpenter normally works on site...
in Slough
Slough
Slough is a borough and unitary authority within the ceremonial county of Royal Berkshire, England. The town straddles the A4 Bath Road and the Great Western Main Line, west of central London...
, and in his spare time he appeared with the Windsor Operatic Society. In 1934 he enrolled as a night student at the Guildhall School of Music
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama is an independent music and dramatic arts school which was founded in 1880 in London, England. Students can pursue courses in Music, Opera, Drama and Technical Theatre Arts.-History:...
, and in 1938 was appointed as a bass singer at Westminster Cathedral
Westminster Cathedral
Westminster Cathedral in London is the mother church of the Catholic community in England and Wales and the Metropolitan Church and Cathedral of the Archbishop of Westminster...
. After a Guildhall performance of Ruddigore
Ruddigore
Ruddigore; or, The Witch's Curse, originally called Ruddygore, is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy Operas and the tenth of fourteen comic operas written together by Gilbert and Sullivan...
, by Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
, in which he played a member of the chorus of ghosts depicted in a picture gallery, he was singled out by Sir Landon Ronald
Landon Ronald
Sir Landon Ronald was an English conductor, composer, pianist, singing teacher and administrator...
: "I want to hear the third portrait from the left", and offered a scholarship to continue his studies full time. He was later well reviewed for his performance in a student production of La vie parisienne
La vie parisienne
La vie parisienne is an opéra bouffe, or operetta, composed by Jacques Offenbach, with a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy.This work was Offenbach's first full-length piece to portray contemporary Parisian life, unlike his earlier period pieces and mythological subjects...
, by Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
, in 1939. He won the Guildhall's Gold Medal
Gold Medal of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
The Gold Medal of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, is awarded in April of each year to the winner of the school's music competition.-List of winners of the Gold Medal:*1910: Myra Hess *1924: Isidore Godfrey *1933: Max Jaffa...
in 1942.
Opera career
During part of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Brannigan was in charge of construction work building army camps, but he was able to make some broadcasts on BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
radio. In 1939 he took part in a BBC studio production of Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
's Hugh the Drover
Hugh the Drover
Hugh the Drover is an opera in two acts by Ralph Vaughan Williams to an original English libretto by Harold Child. According to Michael Kennedy, the composer took first inspiration for the opera from this question to Bruce Richmond, editor of The Times Literary Supplement, around 1909–1910:"I...
. Joan Cross
Joan Cross
Joan Cross was an English soprano, closely associated with the operas of Benjamin Britten. She also sang in the Italian and German operatic repertoires. She later became a musical administrator, taking on the direction of the Sadler's Wells Opera Company.-Career:Cross was born in London...
heard him broadcast and invited him to join the Sadler's Wells Opera, with whom he made his professional operatic début in 1943, at age 35, as Sarastro in Mozart's
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
. He was with Sadler's Wells from 1944 to 1949 and from 1952 to 1958. There he created the role of Swallow in Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
's Peter Grimes
Peter Grimes
Peter Grimes is an opera by Benjamin Britten, with a libretto adapted by Montagu Slater from the Peter Grimes section of George Crabbe's poem The Borough...
(1945). He performed at Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Glyndebourne Festival Opera is an English opera festival held at Glyndebourne, an English country house near Lewes, in East Sussex, England.-History:...
from 1947, and at Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
from 1948. At Glyndeborne, in other Britten premières, he created the roles of Collatinus in The Rape of Lucretia (1946), and Superintendent Budd in Albert Herring
Albert Herring
Albert Herring, Op. 39, is a chamber opera in three acts by Benjamin Britten.Composed in the winter of 1946 and the spring of 1947, this comic opera was a successor to his serious opera The Rape of Lucretia...
(1948). Later, Britten wrote the parts of Noye in Noye's Fludde
Noye's Fludde
Noye's Fludde is an early 15th century mystery play from the Chester Mystery Cycle. It was set to music by Benjamin Britten in 1957 based on an edition by Alfred W. Pollard...
(1958), and Bottom
Nick Bottom
Nick Bottom is a character in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream who provides comic relief throughout the play, and is famously known for getting his head transformed into that of an ass by the elusive Puck within the play.- Overview :...
in A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream (opera)
A Midsummer Night's Dream is an opera with music by Benjamin Britten and set to a libretto adapted by the composer and Peter Pears from William Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night's Dream...
(1960), with Brannigan in mind. Brannigan's repertoire ranged from the earliest operas, including La Calisto
La Calisto
La Calisto is an opera by Francesco Cavalli with a libretto by Giovanni Faustini. The libretto was published in 1651 by Giuliani and Batti. The opera received its first performance on 28 November 1651 at the Teatro San Apollinare, Venice...
by Francesco Cavalli
Francesco Cavalli
Francesco Cavalli was an Italian composer of the early Baroque period. His real name was Pietro Francesco Caletti-Bruni, but he is better known by that of Cavalli, the name of his patron Federico Cavalli, a Venetian nobleman.-Life:Cavalli was born at Crema, Lombardy...
and The Fairy-Queen
The Fairy-Queen
The Fairy-Queen is a masque or semi-opera by Henry Purcell; a "Restoration spectacular". The libretto is an anonymous adaptation of William Shakespeare's wedding comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream. First performed in 1692, The Fairy-Queen was composed three years before Purcell's death at the age...
by Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...
, to modern operas, not only by Britten but other composers including Malcolm Williamson
Malcolm Williamson
Malcolm Benjamin Graham Christopher Williamson AO , CBE was an Australian composer. He was the Master of the Queen's Music from 1975 until his death.-Biography:...
.
Brannigan was known for his roles in comic operas. Of his performance in Don Pasquale
Don Pasquale
Don Pasquale is an opera buffa, or comic opera, in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The librettist Giovanni Ruffini wrote the Italian language libretto after Angelo Anelli's libretto for Stefano Pavesi's Ser Marcantonio ....
at Sadler's Wells, The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
reported, "Brannigan dodders deliciously in the title role, an irresistible noodle with a ludicrous ripeness in his tones and a vivid appreciation of the humour." He was also admired for his Osmin in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Die Entführung aus dem Serail is an opera Singspiel in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German libretto is by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner with adaptations by Gottlieb Stephanie...
, in which he displayed both his buffo and his dramatic skills. He appeared in the 1953 film The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan
The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan
The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan is a 1953 British technicolor film that dramatises the story of the collaboration between W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. Gilbert and Sullivan authored 14 comic operas, later referred to as the Savoy Operas, which became the most popular series of musical...
, and in several Gilbert and Sullivan concerts at the Proms
The Proms
The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London...
. Of the first of these, in 1955, The Times wrote, "So far as comedy was concerned, Mr Owen Brannigan won hands down in his magnificently done Sentry's Song (from Iolanthe
Iolanthe
Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh collaboration of the fourteen between Gilbert and Sullivan....
)."
Concert career
The Times considered Brannigan to be "perhaps even better known as an oratorioOratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
than as an opera singer." In concert, his repertoire ranged from Purcell to Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
's B minor Mass and Tippett
Michael Tippett
Sir Michael Kemp Tippett OM CH CBE was an English composer.In his long career he produced a large body of work, including five operas, three large-scale choral works, four symphonies, five string quartets, four piano sonatas, concertos and concertante works, song cycles and incidental music...
's A Child of Our Time
A Child of Our Time
A Child of Our Time is an oratorio written by Michael Tippett between 1939 and 1941."After more than ten years of thoughtful planning, Michael Tippett summed up his musical, political, spiritual and philosophical beliefs in his first oratorio, A Child of Our Time...
. It included works outside the general repertory such as Kodály
Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is best known internationally as the creator of the Kodály Method.-Life:Born in Kecskemét, Kodály learned to play the violin as a child....
's Te Deum and Elgar
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
's The Apostles
The Apostles
The Apostles are an experimental punk rock band who developed within the confines of the 1980s Anarcho Punk scene in the UK, but did not necessarily adhere to the aesthetics of that movement.-History:...
. At the Three Choirs Festival
Three Choirs Festival
The Three Choirs Festival is a music festival held each August alternately at the cathedrals of the Three Counties and originally featuring their three choirs, which remain central to the week-long programme...
, he sang in Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Requiem
Requiem (Verdi)
The Messa da Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi is a musical setting of the Roman Catholic funeral mass for four soloists, double choir and orchestra. It was composed in memory of Alessandro Manzoni, an Italian poet and novelist much admired by Verdi. The first performance in San Marco in Milan on 22 May...
and Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius
The Dream of Gerontius
The Dream of Gerontius, popularly called just Gerontius, is a work for voices and orchestra in two parts composed by Edward Elgar in 1900, to text from the poem by John Henry Newman. It relates the journey of a pious man's soul from his deathbed to his judgment before God and settling into Purgatory...
, in which he was praised for his "forthright nobility". This aspect of his singing was not without its critics: Edward Sackville-West
Edward Sackville-West, 5th Baron Sackville
Edward Charles Sackville-West, 5th Baron Sackville was a British music critic, novelist and, in his last years, a member of the House of Lords. Musically gifted as a boy, he was attracted as a young man to a literary life and wrote a series of semi-autobiographical novels in the 1920s and '30s...
called it "monotonously hearty", while his colleague Andrew Porter thought it "fine and forthright." Among the other choral works in which Brannigan sang the bass solo parts were Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
's Creation and Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
's Messiah
Messiah (Handel)
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Frideric Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. It was first performed in Dublin on 13 April 1742, and received its London premiere nearly a year later...
and Acis and Galatea. In addition to the classics, he also gained popularity in radio and television programmes of Northumbria
Northumbria
Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...
n and other folksongs and art songs, especially by English composers such as Thomas Morley
Thomas Morley
Thomas Morley was an English composer, theorist, editor and organist of the Renaissance, and the foremost member of the English Madrigal School. He was the most famous composer of secular music in Elizabethan England and an organist at St Paul's Cathedral...
, Charles Edward Horn
Charles Edward Horn
Charles Edward Horn was an English composer and singer. He was born in St Martin-in-the-Fields, London to Charles Frederick Horn and his wife, Diana Dupont. He was the eldest of their seven children. His father taught him music; he also took music lessons briefly in 1808 from singer Venanzio...
and Arthur Sullivan
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...
.
Together with Sir William Walton
William Walton
Sir William Turner Walton OM was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera...
, Brannigan took part in a celebrated prank at the Royal Festival Hall
Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge. It is a Grade I listed building - the first post-war building to become so protected...
in 1961, at a concert celebrating the musical humorist Gerard Hoffnung
Gerard Hoffnung
Gerard Hoffnung was an artist and musician, best known for his humorous works.- Early years :Born in Berlin, and named Gerhard, he was the only child of a well-to-do Jewish couple, Hildegard and Ludwig Hoffnung...
, who had died in 1959. The management announced that Walton had agreed at short notice to conduct an excerpt from his oratorio Belshazzar's Feast
Belshazzar's Feast (Walton)
Belshazzar's Feast is an oratorio by the English composer William Walton. It was first performed at the Leeds Festival on 8 October 1931. The work has remained one of Walton's most celebrated compositions and one of the most popular works in the English choral repertoire...
. Walton and Brannigan entered, and bowed. Walton raised his baton, and the chorus bellowed the single word "slain" from the score. Walton then put down his baton, shook hands with Brannigan, who had not sung a note, and they both bowed and left the platform to gales of applause.
Recordings
Brannigan recorded all his major Britten roles under the baton of the composer. Of these, some critics regard his Noye as his most notable legacy; others find his Nick Bottom to be incomparable. He recorded Purcell's The Fairy Queen in 1970 for Decca, also under Britten's baton. For Sir Thomas BeechamThomas Beecham
Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet CH was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras...
, he recorded Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann in 1947, a recording which formed the soundtrack for a 1951 film
The Tales of Hoffmann (film)
The Tales of Hoffmann is a 1951 British film adaptation of Jacques Offenbach's opera Les contes d'Hoffmann, written, produced and directed by the team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger working under the umbrella of their production company, The Archers...
of the opera. For Sir Adrian Boult
Adrian Boult
Sir Adrian Cedric Boult CH was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London for the Royal Opera House and Sergei Diaghilev's ballet company. His first prominent post was...
he recorded the bass solo part in Messiah and the role of Polyphemus in Acis and Galatea.
For Sir Malcolm Sargent
Malcolm Sargent
Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works...
, he recorded the following Gilbert and Sullivan roles: the title role in The Mikado
The Mikado
The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen operatic collaborations...
(1957), Don Alhambra in The Gondoliers
The Gondoliers
The Gondoliers; or, The King of Barataria is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 7 December 1889 and ran for a very successful 554 performances , closing on 30 June 1891...
(1957), Wilfred Shadbolt in The Yeomen of the Guard
The Yeomen of the Guard
The Yeomen of the Guard; or, The Merryman and His Maid, is a Savoy Opera, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It premiered at the Savoy Theatre on 3 October 1888, and ran for 423 performances...
(1958), Dick Deadeye in H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
(1958), Private Willis in Iolanthe (1959), the Sergeant of Police in The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance
The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The opera's official premiere was at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York City on 31 December 1879, where the show was well received by both audiences...
(1961), the Usher in Trial by Jury
Trial by Jury
Trial by Jury is a comic opera in one act, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was first produced on 25 March 1875, at London's Royalty Theatre, where it initially ran for 131 performances and was considered a hit, receiving critical praise and outrunning its...
(1961) and Sir Despard in Ruddigore (1963). He also sang Willis in the BBC recording of Iolanthe in 1966. His interpretation of the Sergeant of Police in The Pirates of Penzance was so admired that he was invited to make a second recording of it, for the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
, in 1968. The Penguin Guide to Opera said, "perhaps the greatest joy of this recording is Owen Brannigan's Sergeant of Police, a part this artist was surely born to play ... it is almost like hearing it for the first time."
Many of Brannigan's favourite North Country songs were recorded on discs such as A Little Nonsense, originally recorded in 1962 and reissued in 2007, with the Pro Arte Orchestra
Pro Arte Orchestra
-Background:The Pro Arte Orchestra was founded as a limited company chaired by the double-bass player Eugene Cruft; directors also included Archie Camden and Antony English. The initial aim was to perform "the finest of the lighter classics in orchestral music"...
conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras
Charles Mackerras
Sir Alan Charles Maclaurin Mackerras, AC, CH, CBE was an Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan...
.
Later years and legacy
In 1964, Queen Elizabeth II named Brannigan an Officer of the Order of the British EmpireOrder of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
.
Brannigan was in a serious car crash in 1972, from which he never fully recovered. He died of pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
in 1973, aged 65, and is buried in the churchyard of St John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church at Annitsford, where his wife Mary is also buried. Their only son Owen died in 1981 after being electrocuted in an accident.
Opera singer Graeme Danby
Graeme Danby
Graeme Danby is an operatic bass who has performed at several of the world's leading opera houses, notably the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and the English National Opera. He was educated at the Royal Academy of Music in London...
presented a series of tributes to Brannigan on television and in concert in 2008 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Brannigan's birth. His tribute, including recordings of Brannigan, as well as singing by Danby and interviews of people who knew Brannigan, is available as a DVD documentary called The Owen Brannigan Story – a tribute by Graeme Danby.
Reference
- Ayre, Leslie. The Wit of Music, Leslie Frewin, London, 1966
- Brook, Donald Singers of Today, 2nd Edition (Rockliff, London 1958), pp. 38–42 ISBN 0-8369-8080-8
- March, Ivan (ed). The Penguin Guide to Opera on CD, Penguin Books, London, 1993 ISBN 0-14-046957-5
- Sackville-West, Edward, and Desmond Shawe-Taylor, The Record Guide,Collins, London, 1955