Frank Mullings

Mullings made his debut already as a boy, at age 11, singing the soprano part in Elijah. As an adult, he wanted to be a teacher, but in 1904 decided to study voice in Birmingham. His tenor debut took place in 1907 as Gounod's Faust, in a concert performance in Coventry. He remained a – quite successful – concert singer until making his stage debut in 1913 with the Denhof Opera Company, as Tristan in Birmingham, under Thomas Beecham's baton. When Beecham founded his own opera company, Mullings was his principal dramatic tenor (1916–20). From 1922 to 1929, he sang with the British National Opera Company. He performed into the 1930s (for instance with the Carl Rosa Company or the troupe of Covent Garden).

Already from 1927 (and until 1946), he taught voice at the Birmingham School of Music, and from 1944 to 1949 at the Royal Manchester College of Music.

Mullings was exclusively a heldentenor; his most successful roles were Otello, Tristan, Siegfried in Götterdämmerung, Parsifal, Canio and Radames. He was obviously a thrilling stage actor, which explains his success, his less than attractive singing notwithstanding.

Reference 1: Kutsch & Riemens, reference 2
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