Owen Brannigan

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.

Brannigan was born in Annitsford, Northumberland , near Newcastle, the son of the local church organist (of Irish descent), in whose choir he sang as a boy.

[2] In 1934 he enrolled as a night student at the Guildhall School of Music while working days as a government clerk, and in 1938 was appointed as a bass singer at Westminster Cathedral.

[3] 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 was offered a scholarship to continue his studies full-time.

[3] During part of World War II, Brannigan was in charge of construction work building army camps, but he was able to make some broadcasts on BBC radio.

[2] 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.

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.

[16] 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.

[8] In addition to the classics, he also gained popularity in radio and television programmes of Northumbrian and other folksongs[6] and art songs, especially by English composers such as Thomas Morley, Charles Edward Horn and Arthur Sullivan.

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).

[24] 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.